Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday that Muslims had a right "to kill millions of French people," shortly after a knife-wielding man launched a deadly attack in Nice.
Three people were killed at a church in the southern French city of Nice, with the attacker slitting the throat of at least one of them, in what French President Emmanuel Macron called an "Islamist terrorist attack."
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Shortly afterward, Mahathir – who was prime minister of Muslim-majority Malaysia until his government collapsed in February – launched an extraordinary outburst on Twitter.
Referring to the beheading of a French teacher who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, Mahathir said he did not approve of that attack but that freedom of expression does not include "insulting other people."
"Irrespective of the religion professed, angry people kill," said the outspoken 95-year-old, who has drawn controversy for making anti-Semitic remarks and derogatory statements about the LGBT community.
"The French in the course of their history has [sic] killed millions of people. Many were Muslims. Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past."
Mahathir, who served as Malaysian premier twice for a total of 24 years, said that French President Emmanuel Macron was "not showing that he is civilized," adding he was "very primitive."
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He made no direct reference to the Nice attack.
The beheading of the teacher, Samuel Paty, prompted Macron to promise a crackdown on Islamic extremism.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
