"Israel rejects the disgusting comparison made between the struggle against Islamist extremism in France, and Nazi policy and racism against Jews in Europe before World War II," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Hayat said on Twitter.

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"The call for a total boycott of French products is no more than a cynical political exploitation of freedom of expression that incites hatred, and is similar to the hypocritical calls for boycotts of Israeli goods," he added.

1/2 Israel rejects the disgusting comparison made between the struggle against Islamist extremism in France, and Nazi policy and racism against Jews in Europe before World War II. pic.twitter.com/TPrZvgRTnf

— Lior Haiat (@LiorHaiat) October 26, 2020

Erdogan, who has been the most vociferous in his criticism of France among political leaders, called on Turks not to purchase French goods after French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would fight Islamic radicalism.

The latest exchanges have added fuel to a row between Turkey and France over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which have flared after history teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown pupils the cartoons in a lesson on freedom of speech, was beheaded in France this month.

Macron said Tuesday that his government would "intensify its fight against radical Islamism." He said that as a result of Paty's death, dozens of measures had been taken against organizations and individuals "pushing forward a radical Islamist project, in other words, an ideology aimed at destroying the [French] Republic."

The presidency spokesperson pointed out "the absence of messages of condolence and support from the Turkish president after the assassination of Samuel Paty" and condemned Erdogan's call to boycott French products, which the presidency deemed "very offensive."

Macron's government also plans a bill aimed at rooting out what the French president has called "Islamist separatism," which he contends has created a parallel culture in France, one that rejects French laws and norms. While Macron blamed some of this separatism on France's colonial past in North Africa, he was quoted as saying Islam is "a religion that is in crisis all over the world."

In a televised speech on Monday, Erdogan told Turks: "I am now telling my nation, just as they are saying in France not to buy anything from Turkish brands, I call on my nation here and now: do not pay attention to French-labelled goods, do not buy them."

He said Muslims are now "subjected to a lynch campaign similar to that against Jews in Europe before World War II" and that "European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign."

Erdogan added: "The rising Islamophobia in the West has turned into a wholescale attack on our book, our prophet and everything we consider holy. Relocations, inquisitions and genocides towards members of different religions is not a practice that is foreign to Europe. The crimes against humanity committed against Jews 80 years ago, the acts against our Bosnian siblings in Srebrenica just 25 years ago are still in the memory."

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On Wednesday, top Turkish officials condemned a caricature scorning Erdogan in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, calling it a "disgusting effort" to "spread its cultural racism and hatred."

"We strongly condemn the publication concerning our president in the French magazine which has no respect for any belief, sacredness and values," presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin wrote on Twitter.

"They are just showing their own vulgarity and immorality. An attack on personal rights is not humor and freedom expression," he said.

The cartoon on the cover of Charlie Hebdo, showed Erdogan sitting in a white T-shirt and underpants, holding a canned drink along with a woman wearing an Islamic hijab.

Turkish presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun said "Macron's anti-Muslim agenda is bearing fruit!"

"We condemn this most disgusting effort by this publication to spread its cultural racism and hatred," Altun wrote on Twitter.

US news site Politico suggested on Wednesday that Erdogan's boycott call is a "risky bet that has every chance of backfiring."

International investors were "already selling off their lira assets at a rapid pace, as they believe geopolitical tensions are becoming explosive. In addition, in a show of solidarity with France, a number of Middle Eastern countries – including the UAE and Saudi Arabia – have called for a boycott of Turkish products,"  Politico said, adding that "Europe and America are increasingly frustrated with Erdoğan's erratic declarations, his provocative behavior and his attempts to cozy up to Russia. European governments' forceful response to Erdoğan's suggestion that Macron should get a mental health check suggests that the Turkish president's credibility is running increasingly thin."

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Macron said the group would be ordered dissolved Wednesday, when a mosque that relayed a denunciation of the teacher is also to shut.

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The decision to shut down the Cheikh Yassine Collective, which is named after Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the Gaza-based terror organization Hamas, would be taken at a Wednesday cabinet meeting, he said. Macron did not provide details on how the group was "directly implicated" in the attack.

A terror investigation is underway into the killing by an 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen refugee, who was later shot dead by police. The killer has been identified by authorities as Abdoullakh Anzorov.

A judicial official said early Wednesday that seven people detained in an investigation into the grisly slaying, including two minors, were to go before an investigating magistrate later in the day for eventual preliminary charges. The seven were among 16 people, including five adolescents, initially detained for questioning. Nine are being released. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name.

Investigators are trying to learn how the killer, who lived in the Normandy town of Evreux, set up his encounter with Samuel Paty, whether there was complicity and whether the beheading was premeditated.

Speaking after a meeting with regional officials working to counter radical Islamists, Macron added that other associations and individuals are on the radar to be shut or silenced.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people gathered in drizzling rain to honor Paty where he was beheaded Friday as he left school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris. Bouquets of flowers were piled in front of the school.

Paty had shown caricatures of the prophet of Islam to his class earlier this month for a discussion on freedom of expression. His civics course led to parental complaints and threats.

Speaking in the Seine-St.-Denis region, northeast of Paris, Macron reiterated Tuesday that he wanted "tangible results" to combat "an ideology of destruction of the [French] Republic."

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Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said later on BFMTV that the person in question helped disseminate the virulent message of a student's father against the teacher in what increasingly appeared to be a case turning in part on a spiraling fever on social media among some Muslim individuals or groups.

The beheading resonated far beyond France with the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim seat of learning in Cairo, dissociating himself and all Muslims from the attack in a message read to faith leaders at an interfaith prayer service Tuesday in Rome. Calling the beheading "sinful and criminal," he also said that intellectual integrity is compromised by "insulting religions and abusing sacred symbols under the slogan of freedom of expression."

A mosque in the northeast Paris suburb of Pantin is being closed for six months starting Wednesday night. A sign posted by the regional prefecture at the mosque entrance said the house of worship would be closed for six months − with a six-month prison sentence for violators.

The Pantin mosque is being punished for relaying the angry father's message on social media that called for mobilization against the teacher. The father quoted his 13-year-old daughter as saying the teacher had asked Muslims to leave the classroom -- a version that was contested by Paty himself, according to press reports.

Authorities say the mosque has long had an imam following the Salafist path, a rigorous interpretation of the Muslim holy book.

Pantin was also the home of an 18-year-old Pakistani refugee who three weeks earlier attacked and injured two people with a meat cleaver.

A national memorial event will be held Wednesday evening to pay tribute to Paty in the courtyard of Sorbonne University, a centuries-old symbol of the "spirit of Enlightenment" and "a forum to express ideas and freedoms," the French presidency said.

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