Several days after Turkish and Iranian media were given orders by the governing authorities to critique France for “Islamophobia” the condemnations of France have now poured in from Pakistan and the terrorist group Hezbollah. The news of the condemnations are reported and pushed by Iran’s Press TV and Turkey’s Anadolu media and other state media as part of an effort by the governments to create a largely illusionary crises with France. The goal appears to get several groups and countries to condemn France and thus pressure other countries in the Middle East to appear they are not being as strong in defending Islam than the leaders of Iran, Turkey, Hezbollah, Hamas, Pakistan and other groups linked to political Islamic movements. The supposed controversy involves cartoons published long ago in France and which France has consistently defended as free speech. However some Muslim leaders seek to use the “offensive cartoons” which are said to depict the “prophet Mohammed” to fan up flames of populism and mobs. For instance in Turkish-occupied northern Syria mobs burned the French flag and raised a flag that is similar to the ISIS flag. Near the Euphrates the Turkish media sought to use the controversy to stoke anti-US protests and anti-Syrian Democratic Forces protests to create a crisis. Protesters clashed with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish media invented a story of “PKK fires on protesters.” The agenda is to try to bring relevance to regimes such as Hezbollah or Pakistan’s far-right leader Imran Khan, to encourage the perception that these are the “defenders of Islam,” even if in their own areas people are poor and lacking basic services. The local corruption and lack of services is not seen as blasphemy, but rumors of “France offended Muslims” is used to create a distraction about alleged “blasphemy.” This is a usual tool in Pakistan by the far-right to stoke tensions against Hindus, Christians and minorities.Hezbollah, which has played a role in Syrian war supporting the Assad regime which has led to 10 million people becoming refugees, said it was deeply concerned about “Islamophobia” and that “what was published in France hurt the feelings of more than two billion Muslims.” Hezbollah did not make a statement about whether its actions in Syria had hurt the feelings of those whose cities were destroyed in the war. Hezbollah has joined Hamas in Gaza, which has ruled the Gaza strip as a dictatorship since 2006, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups condemning France. In Pakistan, the leader Khan, who has suggested making amends with the Taliban in the past, said it is “unfortunate that he [France’s President] has chosen to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam.” Khan has called Osama Bin Laden a martyr and has never condemned in similar terms the attacks on the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban or frequent terror attacks on Shi’ites, Sikhs and other minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.The latest news about the French cartoon controversy, which dates back more than five years and has been revived, continues to appear contrived via Iran and Turkey to boost support for various far-right groups that use religion to get support. It was unclear how Macron had offended Muslims or why the depiction of several cartoons in a few cities in France had caused offense. Some websites, such as Yahoo even blur the cartoons, so people can’t see them and be offended. A school teacher was beheaded last week because of rumors he showed cartoons in class. Imran Khan, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, Qatar, Islamic Jihad, Turkey and Iran did not condemn the beheading as forcefully as they have condemned alleged publication of the cartoons.