IF Muslims and their religion could be blamed for the deeds of one person, then members of the faith too have the right to punish the French, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

The former prime minister defended calls for Muslims to boycott French products in response to remarks on Islam made by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Dr Mahathir said Macron was wrong to blame Islam and Muslims over the beheading of a teacher recently, maintaining that the killing was not in line with Islamic teachings.

“Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past. But by and large the Muslims have not applied the “eye for an eye” law. Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t.

“Instead, the French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings,” he said in a blog post.

Today a knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in Nice today, in a suspected terrorist act.

French anti-terror prosecutors have opened an inquiry into what the city’s mayor Christian Estrosi called an “Islamo-fascist attack”.

The attack comes just days after thousands rallied across France in solidarity with Samuel Paty, a history teacher beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen man, Abdullakh Anzorov, for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

His murder prompted President Macron to promise a crackdown in Islamic extremism, including shutting down mosques and organisations accused of fomenting radicalism and violence.

“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 for the wrongs committed by the French all these years,” Dr Mahathir said.

He said Macron is showing that he is not civilised and was being primitive by blaming the entire faith and its followers for the killing of Paty.

“It is not in keeping with the teachings of Islam. But irrespective of the religion professed, angry people kill. The French in the course of their history has killed millions of people. Many were Muslims.”

Dr Mahathir, however, also condemned the killing of Paty.

“The killing is not an act that as a Muslim I would approve. But while I believe in the freedom of expression, I do not think it includes insulting other people. You cannot go up to a man and curse him simply because you believe in the freedom of speech.”

Dr Mahathir also added that Malaysia, which has citizens of multiple races and religions, has been able to avoid serious racial conflicts because of the consciousness of the need to be sensitive to the sensitivities of others. He said otherwise, the country would never be peaceful and stable.

“The trouble with new ideas is that the latecomers tend to add new interpretations. These are not what the originators intended. Thus, freedom for women, meant the right to vote in elections. Today, we want to eliminate everything that is different between men and women.

“Physically we are different. This limits our capacity to be equal. We have to accept these differences and the limitations that are placed on us. Our value systems are also a part of human rights.”

Dr Mahathir also said that the West should not try to forcibly impose its ways on others as that is akin to depriving the freedom of others.

He added that many in the West no longer adhere to their own faith and are Christians only nominally.

Although that is their right, they must not disrespect the values or the religion of others, he said.

“It is a measure of the level of their civilisation to show this respect.” – October 29, 2020.