Twitter removed a tweet from Mahathir Mohamad that justified Islamic extremist violence in the wake of two recent grisly terror attacks in France over cartoons of Muhammad.
By World Israel News and AP
Twitter removed a tweet from former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad for glorifying violence after a knife-wielding Muslim killed three people in an attack at a church in the southern French city of Nice on Thursday.
This attack was the second deadly incident of Islamic terrorism in France in less than two weeks, following on the heels of the beheading of middle school teacher Samuel Paty, who showed caricatures of the Muhammad for a class on free speech.
France’s digital minister demanded the company also ban Mahathir Mohamad from its platform.
Cedric O said he told the managing director of Twitter in France that Mahathir’s account “must be immediately suspended,” O tweeted on Thursday. ”
“If not, @twitter would be an accomplice to a formal call for murder.”
Mahathir, the 95-yearold former Malaysian prime minister, claimed the deaths of French people would be justified, in the wake of attacks that French authorities attributed to Muslim extremists.
“Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of people for the massacres of the past,” he said Thursday, in a series of tweets that began with his thoughts on the beheading of Paty.
Twitter at first put aon the tweet saying it glorified violence but left it up because it “may be in the public’s interest.”
The tweet was later removed and replaced with a tag saying it broke the rules. The company said it took action for violating its policy on glorification of violence, which doesn’t allow threats against individuals or a group of people.
Mahathir was twice prime minister, and his second stint lasted from 2018 until he quit in February 2020. He is an unabashed anti-Semite that has promoted Jew-hatred during appearances in the West.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to express his support for France.
Trump tweeted: “Our hearts are with the people of France. America stands with our oldest Ally in this fight. These Radical Islamic terrorist attacks must stop immediately. No country, France or otherwise can long put up with it!”
Muslims have protested worldwide in the wake of a France’s crackdown on Islamic extremism after Paty’s grisly murder.