Malaysia’s former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday launched a controversial outburst saying that Muslims have the right “to kill millions of French people”.
Mahathir’s statement came after three people were stabbed to death – two of them beheaded – at a church in the city of Nice by a knifeman shouting “Allahu Akbar”. The knifeman was later shot 14 times and wounded by armed police.
Referring to the beheading of a French teacher who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, Mahathir said he did not approve of that attack, but maintained that freedom of expression does not include “insulting other people.”
The 95-year-old politician said he didn’t like the beheading of a French school teacher for sharing caricatures of the Prophet, but added that, “Irrespective of the religion professed, angry people kill”.
“The French in the course of their history [have] killed millions of people. Many were Muslims,” he said in a tweet which has since been removed for violating Twitter rules.
Mahathir, who lost power in February this year, added: “Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past.”
The Malaysian politician said that “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.”
“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,” he said, referring the killing of the French teacher.
KanyiDaily recalls that President Macron had this month declared war on “Islamist separatism”, which he believes is taking over some Muslim communities in France.
