<p>French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Egypt Sunday hoping to ease tensions following the publishing of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked ire in the Arab world.</p>.<p>A diplomatic source said Le Drian would meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt's highest Muslim authority.</p>.<p>Le Drian "will pursue the appeasement process" started by President Emmanuel Macron, the French foreign ministry said in a statement.</p>.<p>The Cairo-based Al-Azhar, considered the foremost religious institutions for Sunni Muslims, condemned French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's decision in September to reprint the cartoons.</p>.<p>And last month Tayeb denounced remarks by Macron in "Islamist separatism" as "racist" and spreading "hate speech".</p>.<p>Demonstrations have erupted in several Muslim-majority countries after Macron defended the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which many saw as insulting and an attack on Islam.</p>.<p>Macron's remarks came after a suspected Islamist decapitated a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb on October 16, after he showed the cartoons during a lesson on freedom of expression.</p>.<p>Sisi himself had weighed in, saying last month that "to insult the prophets amounts to underestimating the religious beliefs of many people".</p>
<p>French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Egypt Sunday hoping to ease tensions following the publishing of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked ire in the Arab world.</p>.<p>A diplomatic source said Le Drian would meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt's highest Muslim authority.</p>.<p>Le Drian "will pursue the appeasement process" started by President Emmanuel Macron, the French foreign ministry said in a statement.</p>.<p>The Cairo-based Al-Azhar, considered the foremost religious institutions for Sunni Muslims, condemned French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's decision in September to reprint the cartoons.</p>.<p>And last month Tayeb denounced remarks by Macron in "Islamist separatism" as "racist" and spreading "hate speech".</p>.<p>Demonstrations have erupted in several Muslim-majority countries after Macron defended the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which many saw as insulting and an attack on Islam.</p>.<p>Macron's remarks came after a suspected Islamist decapitated a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb on October 16, after he showed the cartoons during a lesson on freedom of expression.</p>.<p>Sisi himself had weighed in, saying last month that "to insult the prophets amounts to underestimating the religious beliefs of many people".</p>