KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir mohamad he said on Thursday that Muslims had the right “to kill millions of Frenchmen” shortly after a man armed with a knife launched a deadly attack in Nice.
Three people were killed in a church in the southern French city, and the attacker cut the throat of at least one of them, in what authorities were treating as the latest jihadist attack to shake the country.
Soon after, Mahathir, who was the Muslim-majority prime minister of Malaysia until his government collapsed in February, launched an extraordinary blast on Twitter.
Referring to the beheading of a French teacher who showed students cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, Mahathir said he did not approve of the attack, but that freedom of expression does not include “insulting other people”.
“Regardless of what religion you profess, angry people kill,” said the outspoken 95-year-old, who in the past has generated controversy for his comments attacking Jews and Jews. Lgbt community.
“The French in the course of their history have killed millions of people. Many were Muslims. Muslims have the right to be angry and kill millions of French for the massacres of the past.”
Mahathir, who served as Malaysia’s prime minister twice in a total of 24 years, said the French president Emmanuel macron he was “not showing that he is civilized”, adding that he was “very primitive.”
“The French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings. Since you have blamed all Muslims and the Muslim religion for what an angry person did, Muslims have the right to punish the French.
“The boycott cannot compensate for the evils committed by the French during all these years.”
He made no direct reference to the Nice attack.
The beheading of the teacher, Samuel Paty, led Macron to promise an offensive against Islamic extremism.
But the move has ignited tensions, with protests against France breaking out in several Muslim countries, and some urging a boycott of French products.
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