The idea of the existence of an Islamic danger has been used occasionally as an instrument of pressure and dissuasion against some governments of countries of the Islamic world. In 1881, French government developed this kind of strategy during a diplomatic conflict with the Ottoman government caused by French invasion of Tunisia. In this circumstance, the idea of the Islamic danger developed into a discourse on Pan-Islamism: the French ambassador, Charles-Joseph Tissot, accused the Ottoman government of exerting a secret Pan-Islamic policy which consisted in fomenting a general uprising of Islamic peoples in North Africa. This indeed was a tactic to elude the Ottoman protestations about French occupation of Tunis. This article analyses the diplomatic strategy throughout the political correspondence between Paris and Istanbul in 1880–81.