Malaysia’s ex-PM says Muslims ‘have right to kill millions of French’ hours after France attack

Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has sparked an uproar by claiming that Muslims have “a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past”. The comments appeared on the 95-year-old’s Twitter on October 29, 2020, as part of Mahathir’s response to calls from Muslim nations to boycott French products. Calls for a boycott came after French president Emmanuel Macron defended a teacher who showed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in class during a lesson about freedom of expression. The teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by an angry attacker on October 16. The ex-prime minister later hit back at critics accusing them of taking his words out of context.