Muslims have right ‘to kill millions of French people’, says Mahathir Mohamad hours after France attack

Hours after the Nice attack, former Malaysia PM Mahathir Mohamad said Muslims had a right to ‘kill millions of French’.

‘Since you have blamed all Muslims and the Muslims’ religion for what was done by one angry person, the Muslims have a right to punish the French’: Former Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Picture: AFP

Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s two-time former prime minister, has claimed Muslims have a right to “kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past” in a Twitter thread posted just hours after a Muslim man killed three people outside a church in Nice.

In a 13-post Twitter thread uploaded Thursday night under the title Respect Others, the 95-year-old former strong man said he did not approve of the beheading earlier this month of a French high school teacher, Samuel Paty, by an 18-year-old Chechen Muslim, who was angered because he had shown his class a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad, and that the killing was “not in keeping with the teachings of Islam”.

“But irrespective of the religion professed, angry people kill. The French in the course of their history has killed millions of people. Many were Muslims,” he wrote.

Dr Mahathir, whose reformist coalition government collapsed last February after he refused to hand power as agreed to Anwar Ibrahim, slammed French President Emanuelle Macron as “primitive” for declaring in response to the murder of “the insulting schoolteacher” that Islam was a religion in crisis.

“Since you have blamed all Muslims and the Muslims’ religion for what was done by one angry person, the Muslims have a right to punish the French. The boycott cannot compensate the wrongs committed by the French all these years,” he wrote.

Former Malaysia prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s tweet which Twitter has marked as 'glorifying violence'.

“Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past.

“But by and large the Muslims have not applied the ‘eye for an eye’ law. Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t. Instead the French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings.”

The Twitter thread, which had been re-posted tens of thousands of times two hours after it was uploaded, sparked an immediate and ferocious online response as France was still reeling from another deadly Islamic terror attack in the southern coastal city of Nice.

Three people died after being attacked outside the Basilica of Notre Dame by a knife-wielding man yelling “Allahu Akbar”.

Scott Morrison said the comments by Dr Mahathir were “absurd and abhorrent”.

“The only thing that should be said today is to completely condemn those attacks. The only response is to be utterly, utterly devastated,” the Prime Minister told Sydney radio 2GB.

Australia’s ambassador to Malaysia, Andrew Goledzinowski, said that he was “deeply disturbed” by the veteran politician’s statement.

“I know that he has not, and would not, advocate actual violence. But in the current climate, words can have consequences,” the diplomat wrote on his own Twitter handle.

I am deeply disturbed by this statement from Tun Dr Mahathir.
I know that he has not, and would not, advocated actual violence. But in the current climate, words can have consequences. https://t.co/jKq2ZO4NEf

— Andrew Goledzinowski (@AusHCMalaysia) October 29, 2020

Since Mr Paty’s murder, the same images he showed his pupils in a civics lesson have been widely displayed by French citizens and officials asserting their right to freedom of expression.

That has, in turn, sparked further outrage across the Muslim world, with some governments accusing Mr Macron of Islamaphobia amid calls for boycotts of French products.

Many Muslim leaders and scholars have condemned such depictions of the Islamic prophet as hate speech and blasphemous — a crime punishable by jail terms and even death in some Muslim countries.

In his thread Dr Mahathir also criticised many western nations as “Christian in name only”, and seemed to cite western women’s dress standards as an example of declining morals.

“Over the years, more and more parts of the body are exposed. Today a little string covers the most secret place, that’s all. In fact, many in the west are totally naked when on certain beaches,” he said.

But by and large the Muslims have not applied the “eye for an eye” law. Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t. Instead the French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings.

— Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) October 29, 2020

“The West accepts this as normal. But the West should not try to forcibly impose this on others. To do so is to deprive the freedom of these people.”

While it was the right of western nations to no longer adhere to their own religion, he said “they must not show disrespect for the values of others, for the religion of others”.

Dr Mahathir’s extraordinarily incendiary comments are by no means his first.

He has previously questioned the number of Jews killed in the holocaust, described Jews as hooked-nose, and once said he was “glad to be labelled anti-Semitic”.

After first marking Dr Mahathir’s post as violating its rules on “glorifying violence”, Twitter removed it altogether Friday morning.

RESPECT OTHERS

1. A teacher in France had his throat slit by an 18-year-old Chechen boy. The killer was angered by the teacher showing a caricature of Prophet Muhammad. The teacher intended to demonstrate freedom of expression.

— Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) October 29, 2020