FRANCE’S FAR-RIGHT PRESIDENTIAL candidate Marine Le Pen sparked controversy today during her brief visit to Lebanon when she refused to wear a veil to meet the country’s top Sunni Muslim cleric.

On her last day in the small Mediterranean country, Le Pen arrived at Sheikh Abdellatif Deryan’s office in Beirut and was offered a white shawl to cover her blonde hair.

The National Front candidate promptly refused and made a brief statement to journalists before leaving.

“The highest Sunni authority in the world had not had this requirement, so I have no reason to,” Le Pen said, referring to her 2015 visit to Al-Azhar, the prestigious Egyptian institution of Sunni Islamic learning.

She said she had told Deryan’s office that she would not don a veil: “They did not cancel the meeting, so I thought they would accept that I will not wear the scarf.”

“They wanted to impose this on me, to present me with a fait accompli. Well, no one presents me with a fait accompli,” the candidate said.

Deryan heads Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni authority in Lebanon.

In a statement the body said “its press office had informed the presidential candidate, through one of her assistants, of the need to cover her head when she meets his eminence, according to the protocol assumed by Dar al-Fatwa”.

“Dar al-Fatwa officials were surprised by her refusal to conform to this well-known rule,” the statement said.

Fewer than a dozen protesters gathered near Lebanon’s Zaytuna Bay this afternoon to protest against Le Pen’s visit.

“From Beirut to Damascus to Paris to Washington, fascists flock together,” one placard read.

‘Lesser evil’

One banner read “Fascists out!”, and demonstrators carried pictures of Le Pen and US President Donald Trump.

Today is Le Pen’s last day in Lebanon, where she met a foreign head of state for the first time — President Michel Aoun.

The FN leader, whose party takes an anti-immigrant stance, also met Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

Islamic dress is a hot-button issue in France, where the full-face veil is banned in public places.

Le Pen’s deputy Florian Philippot swiftly lauded her controversial move.

“A magnificent message of liberty and emancipation sent to the women of France and of the world,” Philippot wrote on Twitter.

Shunned by European leaders over her party’s stance on immigration and its anti-EU message, Le Pen’s meeting with Aoun aimed to boost her international credibility.

France had mandate power over both Lebanon and Syria during the first half of the 20th century.

© – AFP 2017