The former prime minister of Malaysia said Muslims “have a right to be angry” and “kill millions” following the beheading of a French school teacher by a Muslim man for showing pictures of the Prophet Muhammad to his class.
“12. Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past,” Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the 4th and 7th prime minister of Malaysia, said in a lengthy Twitter post Thursday.
12. Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past.
— Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) October 29, 2020
“13. 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,” Mohamad, 95, added. “The boycott cannot compensate the wrongs committed by the French all these years.”
Mohamad also criticized French President Emmanuel Macron’s response to the beheading of the French school teacher earlier this month, calling him “very primitive.”
“Macron is not showing that he is civilised,” Mohamad tweeted. “He is very primitive in blaming the religion of Islam and Muslims for the killing of the insulting school teacher. It is not in keeping with the teachings of Islam.”
11. Macron is not showing that he is civilised. He is very primitive in blaming the religion of Islam and Muslims for the killing of the insulting school teacher. It is not in keeping with the teachings of Islam.
— Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) October 29, 2020
Mohamad’s tweet was quickly condemned on Twitter by verified users who called on the social media platform to regulate what they viewed as hate speech.
“One wonders what happened to community standards of Facebook and Twitter? Is it being inconsistently applied depending on the person and what is being said?” Indian political official Amit Malviya tweeted.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s comment justifying angry Muslims’ right to kill the French is undiluted hate speech…
One wonders what happened to community standards of Facebook and Twitter? Is it being inconsistently applied depending on the person and what is being said? Convenience?
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 29, 2020
“When Twitter allows holocaust deniers and antisemites like @khamenei_ir to run a public account in violation of their own rules because they’re heading a country, we should not be surprised to see other antisemites like Mahathir Mohamad engaging in calls for mass murder,” Israeli political official Ido Daniel tweeted.
When Twitter allows holocaust deniers and antisemites like @khamenei_ir to run a public account in violation of their own rules because they’re heading a country, we should not be surprised to see other antisemites like Mahathir Mohamad engaging in calls for mass murder. https://t.co/AWKjWD3vzf
— Ido Daniel (@IdoDaniel) October 29, 2020
“This Tweet has been actioned for violating our glorification of violence policy,” a Twitter spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
An armed man shouting “Allahu Akbar” also beheaded a woman Thursday morning in the French city of Nice and killed two others in what officials believe was a terrorist attack.
