Nato members must stand together in support of free speech and tolerance, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, after Turkey called for a boycott of French goods and accused France of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of several Muslim leaders angry at France’s reaction to the beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty, who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as part of a lesson on free speech.
But Mr Erdogan has also been criticised for his rhetoric and was rebuked for saying France’s President Emmanuel Macron needed mental health treatment.
While Turkey and France are both Nato members – like the UK – the two countries have been at odds over a number of issues including tensions in the eastern Mediterranean and Libya.
"The UK stands in solidarity with France and the French people after the appalling murder of Samuel Paty," Mr Raab said. "Terrorism can never and should never be justified.
"Nato allies and the wider international community must stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the fundamental values of tolerance and free speech, and we should never give terrorists the gift of dividing us.”
The French government has deemed the murder of Mr Paty an attack on free speech and defended the right to display the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which is regarded by many Muslims as highly insulting. Mr Macron has described Mr Paty as a hero and vowed to fight what he regards as Islamist separatism in France.
Some 50 organisations with alleged links to radical Islam, as well as a mosque outside Paris, have been earmarked for closure by the government.
The reaction to Mr Paty's murder has caused widespread anger in Muslim countries, where there have been anti-French demonstrations and calls for boycotts of French goods. France has warned its citizens in several Muslim-majority countries to take extra security precautions.
