'Muslims have right to kill millions of French people', says ex-Malaysian PM amid violence

Update at 11:30 PM

After Twitter deleted the ex-Malay PM's outrageous tweets, France Digital sector's secretary spoke to Twitter France's Mangaing Director, seeks suspension of Mahathir Mohamad's social media account.

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Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that Muslims "have the right to kill millions of French people" for the alleged massacres of the past on Thursday. Mahathir railed against France after French President Emmanuel Macron criticised radical Islam for the beheading of a teacher who had shown the cartoon of Prophet Muhammad in a class. In a series of tweets, the 95-year-old leader said that France has killed millions of people in the course of its history, many of whom were Muslims.

Mahathir said that the teacher, Samuel Paty, was killed by an “18-year-old Chechen boy” as he was angered by the teacher showing a caricature of Prophet Muhammad. He said that, as a Muslim, he would not approve the killing, but added that freedom of expression doesn’t include insulting other people. 

“You cannot go up to a man and curse him simply because you believe in freedom of speech,” he tweeted.

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Calls Macron 'very primitive'

Mahathir said that Malaysia has avoided serious conflicts between races because they are “conscious” of the need to be “sensitive to the sensitivities” of others. He said that by and large, Muslims have not applied the “eye for an eye” law, suggesting that neither should France. He blasted the French President, saying Macron is “very primitive” in blaming the religion of Islam and Muslims for the killing of the insulting school teacher.

Earlier today,  at least three people were killed and several left injured in a knife attack on October 29 inside a church in the southern French city of Nice. There have also been unconfirmed reports in French media that at least one of the victims had been beheaded. Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, said that the attacker, who has been arrested, shouted “Allahu Akbar” while he was being restrained by police. The attack occurred amid rising tension between France and Islamic countries over the beheading of the French teacher.

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