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Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad tweeted on Thursday that Muslims had 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 jihadist assault to shake the country.
Soon after, Mahathir, Malaysia’s Muslim-majority prime minister until his government collapsed in February, launched 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.
Cedric O, the French Minister for Digital Affairs, said in a tweet in French and English: “I just spoke with the CEO of @TwitterFrance.
“The account of @chedetofficial must be suspended immediately. Otherwise, @twitter would be complicit in a formal call for murder.”
Twitter initially marked Mahathir’s tweet about killing “millions of Frenchmen” as a “glorification of violence,” but did not delete it.
However, shortly thereafter, the tweet was completely deleted and Twitter told AFP that it was because the comments “violated the policy of glorifying violence.”
However, Mahathir never made a direct reference to the attack in Nice.
Referring to the beheading of a French teacher who had shown his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, Mahathir said he did not approve of his murder, 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 sparked controversy for his comments about Jews and the 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.”
But he added that “in general, Muslims have not enforced the ‘tit-for-tat’ law. Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t.”
Mahathir, who served as Malaysia’s prime minister twice over a total of 24 years, also said French President Emmanuel Macron “was not proving to be 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.
His comments drew widespread condemnation, with some social media users calling them “outrageous” and “shameful.”
The beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty reinforced Macron’s intention to confront Islamic extremism.
But the French president’s comments since then, notably a vote to protect freedom of expression, including cartoons deemed insulting by Muslims, have stoked tensions.
Protests and calls for a boycott against France have broken out in several Muslim countries.
sr-yk-wai / rl
