Muslims have a right to ‘kill millions of French people' over past actions, former Malaysian PM suggests
A former prime minister of Malaysia has sparked outrage by suggesting that Muslims have a right âto kill millions of French people for the massacres of the pastâ.
Mahathir Mohamad made the comments just after a woman was beheaded and two others killed in a knife attack at a church in Nice in southern France on Thursday.
On 16 October, a teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded outside his school in a suburb of Paris after showing his class a controversial set of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad which were republished by the magazine Charlie Hebdo in September.
Two weeks before that, Franceâs president, Emmanuel Macron, had sparked criticism when he set out a plan to combat âseparatismâ and claimed that Islam was âexperiencing a crisis today, all over the worldâ.
The former Malaysian leader, who was prime minister from 2018 until March this year, commented on the murder on Thursday by arguing that Muslims would not approve of the killing but warned that France should ânot show disrespect for the values of othersâ.
âMacron is not showing that he is civilised. He is very primitive in blaming the religion of Islam and Muslims for the killing of the insulting school teacher,â Mr Mahathir said.
âIt is not in keeping with the teachings of Islam.â
He added: âBut irrespective of the religion professed, angry people kill. The French in the course of their history have killed millions of people. Many were Muslims.
âMuslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past.
âBut by and large, the Muslims have not applied the âeye for an eyeâ law. Muslims donât. The French shouldnât. Instead the French should teach their people to respect other peopleâs feelings.â
Mr Mahathirâs statement led to widespread calls for Twitter to remove his posts, with some users describing them as an incitement to violence.
âTake this down urgently, @TwitterSupport,â Brian Klaas, an associate professor in global politics at University College London, wrote in response to the tweets.
âIt's an incitement to mass killing by a former prime minister of Malaysia with more than a million followers. How has this been allowed to stay up for over an hour?!â
One of the tweets has since been taken down for violating Twitterâs rules.
Mr Mahathirâs comments come at a time of heightened tension between Mr Macronâs government and some Muslims in France and other countries.
The French presidentâs decision to publicly defend the cartoons of Muhammad, which have caused anger across parts of the Islamic world, has led to calls for a boycott of French products.
On Monday, Franceâs foreign ministry insisted it was defending freedom of expression and supported Muslims in the country.
A statement from the ministry also claimed that the boycott calls were being âinstrumentalised by a radical minorityâ and should end immediately.
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