London: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has stirred up anger in Europe for declaring that Muslims « have the right to kill millions of French people » just hours after a terrorist attacked beheaded an elderly worshiper and stabbed two others to death in a cathedral in Nice
The explosion was reprimanded by former Australian Ambassador to France Brendan Berne, who said the former Malaysian leader was a « pious hypocrite »
« As Australians we know very well that he is a man who likes to provoke, » Bern said « He is a fanatic without principles, except those of attacking the western world »
Berne concluded his three-year assignment in Paris on October 16 and relocated to Nice He was at Notre-Dame Basilica less than 24 hours before his attack on Thursday morning
Known as a « recalcitrant » by former Prime Minister Paul Keating, Mohamad was previously convicted of inflammatory comments about Jews and gays
He was Prime Minister of the Muslim-majority Malaysia for 22 years between 1981 and 2003, and returned to the helm for another two years before his government collapsed in March of this year
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s comment was deleted by Twitter after it was deemed glorifying violenceCredit: AP
In a series of tweets about two hours after two women and a man were killed in Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice, the 95-year-old told his 13 million subscribers that « people in anger kill « , whatever their religion
« The French throughout their history have killed millions of people. Many were Muslims, » he said
« Muslims have the right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past »
Twitter initially determined the comment broke its rules against glorifying violence, but allowed the tweet to sit because it ‘could’ be in the public interest The social media giant later deleted entirely the tweet
French digital minister Cédric O has contacted Twitter’s director general of French operations to demand action
« Account must be suspended immediately Otherwise, Twitter would be complicit in an official murder call, » O said
In other tweets, Muslims « have the right to punish the French » but have « generally not » taken an « eye for an eye » approach
He also claimed that Macron was « primitive » for having « blamed » Islam and Muslims for the October 16 murder of Samuel Paty, a schoolteacher beheaded for showing cartoons offensive to Muslims during the course on freedom of expression
Macron did not blame Islam or Muslims for the beheading of the teacher but recently stepped up his condemnation of Islamic extremism in France
Some 263 people have died in terrorist attacks in the country since the attack on the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015
The French president’s plan to tackle the problem has been criticized by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who accused the French president of demonizing Muslims and endorsed a boycott of French products
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The former Malaysian leader said the boycott did not go far enough because it « cannot make up for the wrongs committed by the French over all these years »
Regarding this claim, Berne replied: « Believe me, he loves buying luxury goods from LVMH in Paris. He’s a pious hypocrite »
Brendan Berne, pictured with President Emmanuel Macron, ended his three-year post as Ambassador earlier this month
Berne said he felt compelled to publicly criticize the former Malaysian leader because the French don’t know his history like the Australians
« Although he is a statesman of a Muslim country, he does not speak for all Muslims or for all Malaysians who love France, » said Berne, who also tweeted some of his comments in French so that citizens can read them
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has worked closely with Macron to fight extremism and considers him a friend, last week called the French president « one of the great leaders of our time «
Turnbull endorsed Macron’s approach as a good balance between solving a problem and not demonizing all Muslims
Mahathir Bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, Malaysian Emmanuel Macron
News from the world – AU – « A bigot without principles »: former Malaysian prime minister condemned by former ambassador in France
SOURCE: https://www.w24news.com
