World News – AU – Saying that Muslims have the right to kill French people is not the first time Mahathir has courted controversy

Former Malaysian Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday courted controversy after claiming Muslims had the right to « kill millions of French people »

Mohamad, in a series of tweets posted shortly after a man armed with a knife launched a deadly attack in Nice, launched an attack on France and its French President Emmanuel Macron, about the the country’s crackdown on radical Islam, which has been blamed for the recent terrorist attacks in the country

In a series of tweets, Mohamad spoke about the beheading of the teacher in France, and said that « the murder is not an act that I would approve of as a Muslim But even though I believe in the freedom of speech, I don’t think that involves insulting other people You can’t go to a man and curse him just because you believe in freedom of speech « 

13 Since you have blamed all Muslims and the religion of Muslims for what was done by an angry person, Muslims have the right to punish the French Boycott cannot make up for wrongs committed by the French all these years https://tco / ysZeXDrQ09

However, one of his tweets, in which the 95-year-old said « Muslims have the right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past The French should learn to their people to respect the feelings of others ”, was later deleted by Twitter

Although the explosion came as a surprise and shock to many, Mohamad is not new to controversies

As Malaysian Prime Minister, he had repeatedly refused India’s requests for the extradition of controversial televangelist Zakir Naik, wanted in several cases Naik has been in hiding in Malaysia since 2016, it is not yet clear whether the county has granted him asylum

Mohamad is also said to be a regular at Naik’s conferences, having attended several of them in 2016

In January 2019, Mohamad declared that his country had the right not to extradite Naik to India

Mohamad, ousted from power earlier this year, claimed in August that Malaysia was looking for a country other than India to send Zakir Naik, but few countries are ready to accept the controversial preacher

Mohamad also angered the Indian government in September 2019 after raising the issue of Kashmir and the CAA during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly

Mohamad said India had « invaded and occupied » Jammu and Kashmir and called on New Delhi to work with Pakistan to resolve the issue

However, the comments were not well received with India deciding to stop importing palm oil from the country India is the world’s largest importer of edible oils and Malaysia is the world’s largest exporter of oilseeds

In August of this year, Mohamad admitted that his comments had affected the country’s relations with India and also cost its economy

Mahathir Bin Mohamad, Islam, Prime Minister of Malaysia, Emmanuel Macron, Muhammad, Malaysia