"I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!" the president declared in a TRUTH post.

With this declaration, Trump has stepped into a deeply contentious issue that has become a rallying cry for parts of the Christian and evangelical right in the US. Last month, the conservative New York Post, known for its hawkish stance and willingness to criticize even the president, published an editorial urging him to intervene in Nigeria to protect the country's persecuted Christians.

Video: Attacks on worshippers and churches in Nigeria /// Reuters

The paper claimed that a staggering 18,000 churches had been destroyed, 50,000 Christians murdered, and more than 5 million displaced by attacks carried out by Muslims against their Christian neighbors. It argued that while Nigeria's government fights fiercely against Islamist terrorist groups in the country's north, it has done little to stop armed militias of Muslim herders from the central belt who target Christian farming communities.

A land dispute, or genocide?

Leading the political charge is Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, whose base includes evangelical Christians. Cruz has introduced legislation requiring the administration to classify events in Nigeria as religious persecution, demanding a US response, rather than as a conflict linked to climate change, as the Biden administration had previously described it.

Nigeria, with a population of 220 million, is almost evenly split between Christians and Muslims. The country has long faced instability from multiple fronts, including the extremist Boko Haram group, which seeks to impose its radical interpretation of Islamic law and has also targeted Muslims it deems insufficiently devout.

The violence in Nigeria is fueled by multiple factors. Some attacks are religiously motivated and target both Christians and Muslims. Others stem from resource disputes between herders and farmers, intercommunal rivalries, separatist movements, and ethnic clashes.

While Christians are among the victims, analysts note that most people killed by armed groups are Muslims in northern Nigeria, where the majority of attacks occur. Both Muslim and Christian communities have, at various times, accused the other side of committing "genocide" during bouts of religiously charged violence. These attacks are most frequent in the north-central and northwestern regions, where conflicts between predominantly Christian farming communities and Fulani herders, who are mostly Muslim, are widespread.

Joseph Hayab, former chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna State, one of the areas hardest hit by insecurity, disputed claims of a "Christian genocide." He acknowledged that thousands of Christians have been killed over the years but added, "Things are better than they were before." Still, he cautioned that every killing must be condemned.

Whether the widespread killings and destruction in Nigeria's central belt constitute an anti-Christian genocide or a land conflict between farmers and herders may ultimately determine whether Washington takes real action. For the victims, however, the legal definition matters far less than the devastation that has upended their lives.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Wednesday to release at least 200 million shekels ($54 million) to Arab towns after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's decision to withhold them drew accusations of racism.

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Netanyahu said the money would be transferred after a review but gave no details on what that would entail or how long it would take. His spokesperson declined further comment.

"Israel's Arab citizens deserve what all citizens do and I'm committed to this. I demand this of all government ministries and it will be carried out following an evaluation to ensure that funds are transferred for their designated purpose – Israel's Arab citizens," Netanyahu said in a statement.

At the same time, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich doubled down on the fund freeze at a press briefing.

Echoing his earlier announcement, Smotrich, a member of Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition, told reporters on Wednesday that he was withholding budget funds marked for Arab local councils out of fear that the money would end up in the hands of criminals and terrorists.

Arab community leaders said the minister was guided by racism.

"The finance minister is continuing his campaign of incitement against Arab society and its elected leaders," the National Committee of Arab Local Councils said.

Arab citizens make up about a fifth of Israel's population.

The funding, earmarked for basic services and development in 67 Arab local councils, is an effort to correct years of insufficient budget allocations and to narrow the gaps between Jewish Israeli and Palestinian communities,  Ameer Bisharat, CEO of the National Committee of Arab Local Councils in Israel, said.

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British media outlets reported Tuesday that the gunman who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue that ended in his death was investigated by UK domestic intelligence service MI5 as a possible "terrorist threat" in 2020. Authorities, however, concluded he posed no danger, and the investigation was closed.

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Britain's Home Office did not immediately comment on the reports.

US authorities on Sunday named 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram as the hostage-taker in Saturday's 11-hour standoff at a Texas synagogue.

Four people at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville were taken hostage after a gunman entered the building during Shabbat morning services that were being live-streamed. The live stream appeared to capture some of the incident before it was removed.

One of the hostages was released in the evening, according to police. Later in the night an elite FBI hostage rescue team breached the building and rescued the remaining captives, including the rabbi, according to local and federal officials.

Over the weekend, police in the UK announced two teenagers had been taken into custody in connection with the standoff. The teenagers are Akram's sons, two US law enforcement officials told AP. The officials were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, police in Britain said the teenagers had been released without charge.

In a video of the synagogue service that was streamed live on Facebook, Akram can be heard saying, "They let me in. I said 'Is this a night shelter?' and they let me in and they gave me a cup of tea so I do feel bad.

"I like the rabbi. He's a good guy. I bonded with him. I really like him… I've only been here for a couple hours, but I can see he's a good guy."

Federal investigators' involvement in the case appeared to point to Akram belonging to an Islamic terrorist group. Nevertheless, no terrorist organization has yet taken responsibility for the incident.

During the standoff, Akram could be heard on a Facebook livestream demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is suspected of having ties to al-Qaida and was convicted of trying to kill US troops in Afghanistan. The prison where Siddiqui is serving her sentence is in nearby Fort Worth.

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Shlomo Galster, a Chabad Hassid from northern Israel, contracted COVID-19 more than a month ago and was hospitalized at Ha'emek Medical Center in Afula. On Thursday morning, his family was informed that he was on his deathbed and it was time for them to say goodbye.

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Medical workers on the medical center's COVID unit realized that time was short, and it was unlikely that his family would arrive in time to recite the traditional "Shema Yisrael" prayer.

Then head nurse on the COVID unit, Ibrahim Maher, who had been treating Galster since he was hospitalized, stepped in and recited the Shema for him, without knowing by heart the precise wording of the Hebrew prayer.

"I knew he was a religious man and it was important to him that his family pray with him," Maher told Israel Hayom. "I don't know the entire prayer exactly, but I knew how important it was that he hear the words 'Shema Yisrael.' We knew him and his family. We were fond of him. We prayed with him, for his own sake and his family."

"It was clear to me that he wanted us to recite the Shema prayer for him. We have one God," Maher continued.

Maher said that when Galster's family arrived at the hospital, they already knew that he had passed.

"It was important to me that his daughter would know, and maybe it would console her and the family a bit that at least we managed to recite the Shema," he added.

Galster's daughter told Israel Hayom: "It was a difficult, sad day. My father never stopped talking about the devoted care he received and how thankful he was to Maher and the entire team."

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A court in eastern France convicted a delivery driver of anti-Semitic discrimination on Thursday for refusing to take orders for kosher food, and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the Algerian man would be deported after he completes his prison sentence.

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The conviction in the city of Strasbourg came two days after a regional Jewish institution, the Israelite Consistory of the Bas-Rhin region, said two kosher restaurants had reported that drivers working for Deliveroo refused to handle their food because they didn't want to deliver to Jews.

The group and restaurants filed a legal complaint, the consistory said Tuesday, denouncing what it called "openly anti-Semitic discrimination." Only one deliverer was ultimately involved in the court action.

The interior minister tweeted that the Algerian man, who was in France illegally, had been convicted and handed a four-month prison sentence.

"I decided to expel from the national territory the food 'deliverer'...who said he did not want to handle deliveries to Jewish clients," Darmanin wrote.

The Strasbourg prosecutor's office had opened an investigation into "discrimination based on ethnic origin in the framework of providing a service," according to a prosecutor's aide.

Deliveroo spokesman Damien Steffan said Tuesday on local broadcaster France Bleu that the company thinks "anti-Semitic acts, like all racist or discriminatory acts of all kinds, are unacceptable."

Deliveroo has around 14,000 drivers in France and has seen business grow considerably during the coronavirus pandemic.

The case drew the national government's attention amid long-running efforts to fight anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination. France's minister for citizenship issues, Marlene Schiappa, met Tuesday with the management of Deliveroo France.

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In October, Indonesian diplomats and Muslim clerics stepped off a plane in China. While the diplomats were there to finalize deals to ensure millions of doses reached Indonesian citizens, the clerics had a much different concern: whether the COVID-19 vaccine was permissible for use under Islamic law.

As companies race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and countries scramble to secure doses, questions about the use of pork products – banned by some religious groups – have raised concerns about the possibility of disrupted immunization campaigns.

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Pork-derived gelatin has been widely used as a stabilizer to ensure vaccines remain safe and effective during storage and transport. Some companies have worked for years to develop pork-free vaccines: Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has produced a pork-free meningitis vaccine, while Saudi- and Malaysia-based AJ Pharma is currently working on one of their own.

But demand, existing supply chains, cost, and the shorter shelf life of vaccines not containing porcine gelatin means the ingredient is likely to continue to be used in a majority of vaccines for years, said Dr. Salman Waqar, general secretary of the British Islamic Medical Association.

Spokespeople for Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca have said that pork products are not part of their COVID-19 vaccines. But limited supply and preexisting deals worth millions of dollars with other companies mean that some countries with large Muslim populations, such as Indonesia, will receive vaccines that have not yet been certified to be gelatin-free.

This presents a dilemma for religious communities, including Orthodox Jews and Muslims, where the consumption of pork products is deemed religiously unclean, and how the ban is applied to medicine, he said.

"There's a difference of opinion amongst Islamic scholars as to whether you take something like pork gelatin and make it undergo a rigorous chemical transformation," Waqar said. "Is that still considered to be religiously impure for you to take?"

The majority consensus from past debates over pork gelatin use in vaccines is that it is permissible under Islamic law, as "greater harm" would occur if the vaccines weren't used, said Dr. Harunor Rashid, an associate professor at the University of Sydney.

There's a similar assessment by a broad consensus of religious leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community as well.

"According to the Jewish law, the prohibition on eating pork or using pork is only forbidden when it's a natural way of eating it," said Rabbi David Stav, chairman of Tzohar, a rabbinical organization in Israel.

If "it's injected into the body, not (eaten) through the mouth," then there is "no prohibition and no problem, especially when we are concerned about sicknesses," he said.

Yet there have been dissenting opinions on the issue – some with serious health consequences for Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, some 225 million.

In 2018, the Indonesian Ulema Council, the Muslim clerical body that issues certifications that a product is halal, or permissible under Islamic law, decreed that the measles and rubella vaccines were "haram," or unlawful, because of the gelatin. Religious and community leaders began to urge parents to not allow their children to be vaccinated.

"Measles cases subsequently spiked, giving Indonesia the third-highest rate of measles in the world," said Rachel Howard, director of the health care market research group Research Partnership.

A decree was later issued by the Muslim clerical body saying it was permissible to receive the vaccine, but cultural taboos still led to continued low vaccination rates, Howard said.

"Our studies have found that some Muslims in Indonesia feel uncomfortable with accepting vaccinations containing these ingredients," even when the Muslim authority issues guidelines saying they are permitted, she said.

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Governments have taken steps to address the issue. In Malaysia, where the halal status of vaccines has been identified as the biggest issue among Muslim parents, stricter laws have been enacted so that parents must vaccinate their children or face fines and jail time. In Pakistan, where there has been waning vaccine confidence for religious and political reasons, parents have been jailed for refusing to vaccinate their children against polio.

But with rising vaccine hesitancy and misinformation spreading around the globe, including in religious communities, Rashid said community engagement is "absolutely necessary."

"It could be disastrous," if there is not strong community engagement from governments and health care workers, he said.

In Indonesia, the government has already said it will include the Muslim clerical body in the COVID-19 vaccine procurement and certification process.

"Public communication regarding the halal status, price, quality, and distribution must be well-prepared," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in October.

While they were in China in the fall, the Indonesian clerics inspected China's Sinovac Biotech facilities, and clinical trials involving some 1,620 volunteers are also underway in Indonesia for the company's vaccine. The government has announced several COVID-19 vaccine procurement deals with the company totaling millions of doses.

Sinovac Biotech, as well as Chinese companies Sinopharm and CanSino Biologics – which all have COVID-19 vaccines in late-stage clinical trials and deals selling millions of doses around the world – did not respond to Associated Press requests for ingredient information.

While health care workers on the ground in Indonesia are still largely engaged in efforts to contain the virus as numbers continue to surge, Waqar said government efforts to reassure Indonesians will be key to a successful immunization campaign as COVID-19 vaccines are approved for use.

But, he said, companies producing the vaccines must also be part of such community outreach.

"The more they are transparent, the more they are open and honest about their product, the more likely it is that there are communities that have confidence in the product and will be able to have informed discussions about what it is they want to do," he said.

"Because, ultimately, it is the choice of individuals."

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As the number of new coronavirus cases in Israel's Arab sector continues to mushroom, more officials are criticizing the decision to continue to allow public prayer on the Temple Mount every Friday, which is attended by some 12,000 faithful.

The Muslim Waqf, which is charged with enforcing Israel's public health regulations, does make sure that worshippers on the Temple Mount wear masks and maintain social distancing. The prayers themselves are held in the open air.

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However, this past Friday, the weekly prayers turned into a mass demonstration against France and French President Emmanuel Macron, part of a backlash throughout most of the Muslim world against the government taking a stance in favor of upholding free speech and allowing the republication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Worshippers at the Temple Mount crowded together, against the Health Ministry instructions, and police forces were forced to disperse the gathering. Three people were arrested for allegedly disturbing the peace.

Both the Arab leadership in Israel and the Health Ministry are worried about the spread of coronavirus in that sector. Outgoing coronavirus chief Professor Ronni Gamzu announced that the next two weeks would be devoted almost entirely to stopping the spread of the virus in Arab communities.

"We will devote most of our resources this coming week to the Arab sector. Dozens of coronavirus testing stations will open in Arab communities, and residents will not have to provide a doctor's referral or any payment. We want everyone in the Arab sector to be tested," Gamzu said.

Ayman Saif, the official who oversees the government's fight against coronavirus in the Arab sector, confirmed that wedding season had led to a spike in coronavirus cases among Israel's Arab population.

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The pressure rises with each gruesome attack. After three in five weeks, France's Muslims are feeling squeezed.

A spotlight of suspicion was trained on them again even before the latest acts of extremist violence, including two beheadings. President Emmanuel Macron has forged ahead with his effort to rid Islam in France of extremists, part of a project he labels "separatism, a term that makes Muslims wince.

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Amid intensifying rhetoric and fresh attacks by outsiders, including the killings of three people Thursday at a Catholic church in Nice, Muslims in France have kept their heads down and chins up. But deep down, some are squirming, feeling they are being held responsible.

"It's worrisome for Muslims," said Hicham Benaissa, a sociologist who specializes in Islam in the workplace. Within his network, he said, some "talk about leaving France. The situation is tense. There is fear."

Islam is the second religion in France, which has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. But the country's estimated 5 million Muslims have walked a delicate line in search of full acceptance in what for many is their nation of birth. Discrimination casts a shadow over some and is an outright barrier to mainstream life for others.

France's cherished value of secularism, which is meant to ensure religious freedom, has in recent years been used by the state to reign in customs practiced by some Muslims. The president's proposed law may mean further tinkering with the 1905 secularism law born out of a conflict with the powerful Roman Catholic clergy.

Macron has prompted angry protests and calls for boycotts of French products this past week from South Asia to the Mideast. He is accused of spreading anti-Muslim sentiment, notably while eulogizing the teacher who was decapitated near Paris, by defending the French right to caricaturize Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Samuel Paty was attacked outside his school Oct. 16 by a teenage refugee of Chechen origin for showing the caricatures in a civics class. A young Tunisian man killed three people Thursday inside the basilica in the southern city of Nice, beheading one woman. The series of bloodletting began Sept. 25 when a young Pakistani refugee injured two people outside the former Charlie Hebdo newsroom office in Paris. In January 2015, attackers massacred 12 people there after the paper published caricatures of the prophet. That trial is underway.

Words of solidarity from France's Muslim leaders have been unfailing. The attack "touched brothers and sisters who were praying to their lord. I am deeply Christian today," said the imam of Nice's Ar-Rahma Mosque, Otman Aissaoui.

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But, "once again we are stigmatized, and people move so fast to lump things together," Aissaoui also said, reflecting the deepening discomfort of France's Muslims, most from former French colonies in North Africa.

Muslims "are neither guilty nor responsible ... We shouldn't have to justify ourselves," said Abdallah Zekri, an official of the French Council for the Muslim Faith.

The attacks and Macron's "separatism" plan, which includes a partial overhaul of the way Islam is organized in France, from the training of imams to management of Muslim associations, have drilled home the divide. They also have focused attention on the cherished value of secularism –"laicite" in French – which is enshrined in the French Constitution but is still not clearly defined.

"The presence of Islam was not something foreseen by French society," said Tareq Oubrou, a leading imam in Bordeaux.

Tensions have run high in the past, notably with changes to the secularism law, with a 2004 law banning headscarves in classrooms and another in 2010 banning face-coverings.

"Secularism has always been a smokescreen ... a hidden way to treat the question of Islam," Benaissa said.

Rim-Sarah Alouane, a doctoral candidate at Toulouse Capitole University, researching religious freedom and civil liberties, is tougher. "Since the l990s, laïcité has been weaponized and misused as a political tool to limit the visibility of religious signs, especially Muslim ones," she said.

"The state needs to make sure to respect and fully embrace its diversity and not consider it a threat," she said.

The rise of Islam into public view was gradual and mostly went unnoticed until the far right seized upon it as a threat to the French identity. Over the years mosques have multiplied, along with Muslim schools.

Muslim men initially came to France to take menial jobs following World War II. In the 1970s, immigrant Muslims working in car factories, construction and other sectors were "absolutely essential to French industry," Benaissa said. Renault, for instance, installed prayer rooms.

"Today, when a veiled woman arrives in a company, there is ... a revolt. What happened?" he asked.

Many Muslims, unlike their parents or grandparents, are getting educations, better jobs and erasing the "myth of return," he said.

Olivier Roy, a top expert, told a parliamentary committee that most Muslims have worked to integrate into French culture. They "format themselves to the French Republic and complain they don't get a payback in return, don't have the benefit of recognition," he said.

Macron conceded in a speech that France bears full responsibility for the "ghettoization" of Muslims in housing projects but insists the planned law is not about stigmatizing Muslims.

Yet stigmatism is part of life in France for many, from being singled out by police for ID checks to discrimination in job searches.

"The Muslim is reduced to his religion," said Oubrou, the Bordeaux imam. "Everything is not Christian in the life of a Christian."

The religion with no single leader has multiple strains in France, running from moderate to Salafist with a rigorous interpretation of the religion to outright radical upstarts.

In his project, Macron envisions measures like training imams in France instead of bringing them in from Turkey, Morocco or Algeria.

Benaissa doesn't underestimate the "ideological offensive" of political Islam, but says a ferocious public debate is reducing Islam to a single fear.

"Islam is not Islamism, a Muslim is not an Islamist. An Islamist is not necessarily a jihadi," he said. "What I fear is that identities radicalize, with on one side those claiming the Muslim identity and on the other those claiming the identity of France."

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"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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France warned its citizens in several Muslim-majority countries to take extra security precautions on Tuesday as anger surged over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, while the head of Russia's Chechnya region said Paris was pushing people towards terrorism.

In Bangladesh, thousands of protesters marched through the capital, with some stamping on a poster of French President Emmanuel Macron. In Iran, the French charge d'affaires was summoned to register a protest over the cartoons.

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But in a sign that some countries want to limit the fallout, Saudi Arabia – while condemning the cartoons – held back from echoing calls in other parts of the Muslim world for a boycott of French products.

The row has its roots in a knife attack outside a French school on Oct. 16 in which a man of Chechen origin beheaded Samuel Paty, a teacher who had shown pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson. The caricatures are considered blasphemous by Muslims.

The French government, backed by many citizens, saw the beheading as an attack on freedom of speech and said they would defend the right to display the cartoons.

Macron called the teacher a hero, and he pledged to fight "Islamist separatism," saying it was threatening to take over some Muslim communities in France.

France's foreign ministry on Tuesday issued safety advice to French citizens in Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Iraq and Mauritania, advising them to exercise caution. They should stay away from any protests over the cartoons and avoid any public gatherings.

"It is recommended to exercise the greatest vigilance, especially while traveling, and in places that are frequented by tourists or expatriate communities," it said.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's majority-Muslim region of Chechnya, addressed Macron in a post on Instagram.

"You are forcing people into terrorism, pushing people towards it, not leaving them any choice, creating the conditions for the growth of extremism in young people's heads. You can boldly call yourself the leader and inspiration of terrorism in your country," Kadyrov wrote.

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Asked by Reuters to comment, an official in the French presidential administration said: "We won't be intimidated and we put on notice those who sow hatred, which in Kadyrov's case, is unacceptable."

The images of the prophet were first published years ago by a French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, whose editorial offices were attacked in 2015 by terrorists who killed 12 people.

Since Paty's killing, French people protesting in solidarity have displayed the cartoons in the street, and they were projected onto a building in one city. French officials have closed a Paris mosque they said was fanning anger over the cartoons.

Calls for a boycott of French goods were trending over the weekend on social media in Saudi Arabia, but officials have not backed them, favoring a measured approach.

The daily Arab News on Tuesday cited the head of the Saudi-based Muslim World League, Mohammed al-Issa, as cautioning that an over-reaction "that is negative and goes beyond what is acceptable" would only benefit "haters."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday asked his compatriots to stop buying French goods and accused France of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.

Previous Turkish calls for boycotts of foreign goods have fizzled out, but Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank on Tuesday urged businesspeople to enforce the boycott. "We must show a strong stance," he said.

In a rare show of unity, four Turkish parties, including the main opposition group, issued a joint declaration saying Macron was being "reckless" in pushing freedom of expression, and his stance could trigger harmful conflict.

In Jordan, around 50 protesters gathered outside the heavily guarded French embassy in the capital, Amman.

"This is not freedom of speech – when other people's religions are infringed upon," said a former member of parliament, Dima Tahboub, referring to the stance taken by Paris on the cartoons. "This is an obvious attack."

France has been on high alert following the beheading and areas around the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower in central Paris were evacuated briefly on Tuesday in security alerts. There was no evidence the alerts were linked to the cartoons row.

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