Pakistan Minister Shireen Mazari on Sunday deleted her controversial tweet comparing French President Emmanuel Macron’s regime to Nazis after France’s foreign minister registered a protest against it. Mazari had made objectionable comments against the French president over his stance on Charlie Hebdo caricatures of Prophet Mohammad.
On November 22, Shireen Mazari took to her official Twitter handle saying, “Macron is doing to Muslims what the Nazis did to the Jews- Muslim children will get ID numbers (other children won’t) just as Jews were forced to wear the yellow star on their clothing for identification.”
France immediately took note of the tweet as it stirred a political storm and issued a strong-worded notice to the Charge d’affaires of Pakistan.
In its letter, France Foreign Minister said that Shireen Mazari’s “despicable words are blatant lies, loaded with an ideology of hatred and violence. Such slanderous comments are disgraceful at such level of responsibility. We reject them strongly”.
“Pakistan must rectify this statement and return to the path of dialogue based on respect,” added the French minister.
After France Foreign Minister’s notice, Shireen Mazari deleted her tweet and issued a clarification on Twitter. She confirmed that the article she had cited in her tweet was rectified by the relevant publication and she also deleted her tweet.
It should be noted that the ties between Pakistan and France have come under strain recently over Emmanuel Macron’s stance on Prophet Mohammad’s caricatures and his dealing of Muslim extremists in the country.
Earlier in October, Pakistan’s parliament urged PM Imran Khan to recall its envoy from Paris. The parliament cited French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks in the wake of the recent terror attacks in France as the reason.
