Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad strongly criticized France in a series of tweets on Twitter, recalling its massacres against Muslims in the past, but the site deleted one of these tweets.
Mahathir, 95, said in his messages titled "Respect Others" that he believes in freedom of expression, but it should not be used to offend others, in reference to French President Emmanuel Macron's insistence on supporting the publication of the cartoons insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, and what provoked it. That is out of anger in the Islamic world.
In his tweets that followed the killing of 3 people in a knife attack inside a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, he added, "No matter what religion they profess, angry people are killed."
"The French have killed millions of people throughout their history. Many of them were Muslims. Muslims have the right to be angry and kill millions of French in revenge for the massacres of the past, but in general the Muslims do not apply the eye for an eye. Muslims do not do this and the French should not do this," he said.
"Since you blame all Muslims and the religion of Muslims for what one angry person does, Muslims have the right to punish the French," he added.
Mahathir did not directly refer to the Nice attack in his posts.
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.
The boycott cannot compensate the wrongs committed by the French all these years .https: //t.co/ysZeXDrQ09
- Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) October 29, 2020
The former Malaysian prime minister said that French President Macron "does not appear civil," adding that he is "very primitive."
"The French should teach their people to respect the feelings of others. Since you held all Muslims and their religion responsible for what one angry person did, Muslims have the right to punish the French. Boycott cannot compensate for the mistakes the French made all these years," he said.
Several Muslim countries are witnessing popular campaigns to boycott France and its goods, amid mounting anger over the repeated publication of the offensive cartoons and Macron's defense of them.
In his publications, Mahathir referred to the beheading of a French teacher in a suburb of Paris, after he offered his students cartoons offensive to the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace.
He said he did not approve of this assault, but that freedom of expression did not include "insulting others."
Initially, Twitter tagged Mahathir's tweet in which he talked about "killing millions of French" to say that it violated its rules on "glorifying violence", but the site decided that it might be in the public's interest to stay.
But after a short time, Twitter deleted this tweet completely.