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Calling violence for reasons drawn from the past or present is simply wrong.
Let’s be honest: Malaysia doesn’t exactly smell like roses right now because the world is familiar with our financial scandals, corruption cases involving top leaders, and endless political intrigues.
We are in the news for the wrong reasons most of the time. So the last thing we need is for Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to put us on the world news.
On Thursday, the former prime minister tweeted that Muslims have the right to “kill millions of Frenchmen” after a deadly attack in Nice, sparking widespread anger and prompting Twitter to remove his post.
Three people were killed in a church in the southern French city, and the attacker cut the throat of at least one, in what authorities were treating as the latest terrorist assault to hit the country.
Soon after, Dr. Mahathir released an extraordinary outburst in a series of tweets.
Twitter initially refused to remove the comments, but ultimately did so after an angry backlash from the French government.
It was featured on Quotidien, France’s most popular talk show, and on almost every major news network in the world. Just search for it on the net.
Many of us, including our business partners, were bombarded with text messages to find out if Malaysia had joined the al-Qaeda Club. We had to assure them that the country and the people, for the most part, had not gone crazy.
Muslims around the world are outraged by the way French President Emmanuel Macron has handled the complexities of a plural society, with his racial and religious sensibilities. It has appeared condescending in the eyes of the world’s Muslim population.
At the same time, Turkey has triggered the political temperature by calling for a boycott of French products. Both are likely to want to interact with their national audience to score points, which is what politicians do.
We wonder if Dr. Mahathir is also doing the same since his popularity has sunk, with his newly formed party going nowhere, because surely, even at his advanced age, his faculties are more intact than those of the youngest.
Something has gone terribly wrong when we cannot draw a line between right and wrong. Calling violence for reasons drawn from the past or present is simply wrong.
It can’t be justified and it seems so much worse coming from a high-level leader like Dr. Mahathir, whom many of us respect and admire, even if we don’t agree with his policy.
The world will not only see your tweet as your personal emotional response, it will only remember Malaysia as a country for it.
Later, on his blog, Dr. Mahathir expressed his disgust at attempts to “misrepresent and take out of context” what he wrote, saying they had wrongly hinted that he promoted the massacre of the French.
He noted that his publication, in its entirety, called for the French to teach their people to respect the feelings of others.
“There is nothing I can do with the decision of Facebook and Twitter to remove my post. In my opinion, since they are the purveyors of freedom of expression, they should at least allow me to explain and defend my position, ”he said.
Now, there will be many who say that Dr. Mahathir simply wants to get the attention of the Muslim audience at home.
Wisma Putra took the right approach by summoning a senior official from the French Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to convey Malaysia’s disdain for the contemptuous attitude towards Islam, including publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
In a statement, Wisma Putra said that he had summoned the charge d’affaires of the French Embassy in Kuala Lumpur when Malaysia sought to express its concern over “increasing hostilities, hate speech and defamation of Islam.”
“During the meeting, the ministry reiterated Malaysia’s position to strongly condemn any inflammatory rhetoric and provocative acts that seek to smear Islam as the world has recently witnessed in the forms of populist speeches and publication of profane cartoons depicting the Holy Prophet Muhammad.” added. .
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the country “strongly condemns” inflammatory rhetoric and provocative acts that defame Islam.
France has got into a tight corner. To be fair, it has also opened its doors to people from its former colonies in Arab and African nations.
France has the highest number of Muslim immigrants with more than 5.6 million people, or 8.8% of the country’s population. Let’s not forget also that they chose a secular country like France, rather than an African or Middle Eastern nation with similar cultural and religious leanings.
But like many things with people, it’s never easy to abandon roots, especially race, religion, and culture. If integration is difficult, assimilation is almost impossible. It doesn’t matter that almost all immigrants speak French.
When an economy contracts, immigrants will always be the first to face a backlash. They are always bogeymen, and this also happens to immigrants of other races.
In France, the economic disparity between whites and immigrants has widened, leading to frustrations.
As the number of Muslims increases, with Islam the fastest growing religion in Europe, the congregation needs more places of worship, but councils are always concerned about approving the construction of more mosques.
So the result is prayers in the street, but for the local French, this seems unacceptable and, as a recent viral video has shown, some of them have taken to the provocation by singing loudly to drown out the prayers. The police have done nothing to suppress this behavior.
Such a video, as it goes viral, would surely anger Muslims around the world. As a non-Muslim, I find these clashes very disturbing and wonder why the French police allow it. If democracy and freedom of expression are enshrined in that society, why does it keep happening?
We can argue firmly about rights and all that, but wisdom is a serious fault, especially when cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad are allowed to proliferate.
Therefore, Malaysia needs to distance itself from Dr. Mahathir. Their opinions do not reflect our feelings.
Even Turkey has quickly joined the wave of convictions for the brutal killings of three people by a suspected extremist in the French coastal city of Nice, despite being in the midst of a growing dispute between Ankara and Paris over a wide range. from issues spanning the eastern Mediterranean to the role of Islam.
The assailant is said to have charged the victims with a knife at the Notre-Dame Basilica in the heart of the city on the French Riviera.
Two of the victims were women, one in her 70s who was “virtually beheaded” while praying, the BBC reported. The suspect, who has not yet been identified, was shot and arrested shortly after.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “It is clear that those who commit such a violent act in a holy place have no respect for any humanitarian, religious or moral value.”
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said: “Terror has no religion, language or color. We will fight with determination and solidarity against all forms of terrorism and extremism ”.
In fact, there is no religion that encourages any form of violence. If there are ignorant people who want to behead others, in the name of God, then we should thwart that by staying sensible.
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