Erdoğan chastises Macron for targeting Islam and Muslims

Delivering a speech during a virtual Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting on Tuesday, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed some Western countries for Islamophobic policies, saying such moves have "become a useful device to mask their own failures."

"The latest examples of this would be the terms 'French Islam,' 'European Islam,' and 'Austrian Islam' being brought into the spotlight," he said.

Such moves-especially those by French President Macron-are actually meant to target Islam and Muslims, Erdoğan said.

Turkish leaders have blasted Macron's Oct. 2 speech claiming that Islam is "in crisis," saying that it encourages Islamophobia and was meant to distract from his own failures.

Erdoğan further stressed that there is a desire to "establish an anti-Islamic system where religion is only practised at home and there is no permission for religious principles and symbols in the streets, workplaces, downtown, or social life."

"Systematic attacks from the outside and the mistakes that set the stage for these attacks from within will never penetrate the spirit of our religion," he added.