Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Western countries attacking Islam want to "relaunch the Crusades" as a row flared between Turkey and France about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
Erdogan said in a speech to lawmakers from his AK Party in parliament that standing against attacks on the Prophet Mohammad was "an issue of honour for us".
"Unfortunately, we are in a period when hostility to Islam, Muslims and disrespect for the prophet, is spreading like cancer, especially among leaders in Europe," he added.
Erdogan noted that France, and Europe in general, deserved better than the vicious, provocative and hateful policies of French President Emmanuel Macron.
"We call on prudent Europeans to take action against this dangerous trend on behalf of themselves and their children for a bright future," he said.
Earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron accused French Muslims of "separatism" and described Islam as "a religion in crisis all over the world."
Tensions further escalated after Samuel Paty, a teacher at Bois-d'Aulne College in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, was beheaded on Oct. 16 by Abdullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old of Chechen origin, in retaliation for showing controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad to his students during one of his classes on freedom of expression.
Macron paid tribute to Paty and said France would "not give up our cartoons."
Insulting cartoons by Charlie Hebdo were also projected on buildings in a few cities.
Earlier this year, the magazine republished cartoons insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad.
They were first published in 2006 by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, sparking a wave of protests.
Several Arab countries as well as Turkey, Iran and Pakistan have censured Macron's attitude toward Muslims and Islam, with President Erdogan saying the French leader needs "mental treatment".
While calls to boycott French products are circulating online in many countries, Erdogan has urged Turks "to never help French brands or buy them."
Erdogan also said that Turkey had the legitimate right to act once again if terrorists are not cleared along its border with Syria.
The president stated that a recent Russian attack on Syrian opposition fighters in northwest Syria's Idlib showed lasting peace in Syria was not wanted.
