Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticized Facebook and Twitter for removing parts of his statement on Islamophobia.

Criticised Facebook and Twitter for removing parts of his statement

In a statement titled Misrepresented Context put up on his blog on Oct. 30, he alleged that the two social media platforms had "deliberately" deleted parts of his statement.

Mahathir had previously commented on the recent incidents in France, the latest being church stabbings in the French city of Nice.

The statement, titled "Respect Others" contained 13 points and was published in his blog.

Mahathir had also tweeted the statement in a form of a thread on his Twitter account on Oct. 29.

Mahathir's criticism was referring to the twelfth point that was removed, which said that "Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past.”

Mahathir had originally also added that "by and large the Muslims have not applied the ‘eye for an eye’ law."

"Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t", Mahathir added, saying that "the French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings" instead.

"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 the wrongs committed by the French all these years."

Mahathir: They must allow me to explain and defend my position

Mahathir said that Facebook and Twitter had requested the administrators of his Facebook and Twitter accounts to remove the postings, and they were then removed "despite attempts to explain the context of the posting."

At first, Twitter left it up because it deemed that it was in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible but later censored the tweet.

A Mahathir staff member said in Al Jazeera that the entire post was removed by Facebook.

Facebook Malaysia said it removed Mahathir’s post for violating its policies, noting that Facebook "do(es) not allow hate speech on Facebook and strongly condemn any support for violence, death or physical harm".

Mahathir reflected his disappointment with the removal, and mentioned that he was "disgusted with attempts to misrepresent and take out of context what I wrote on my blog yesterday."

“There is nothing I can do with FB and Twitter’s decision to remove my posting. To my mind, since they are the purveyor of freedom of speech, they must at least allow me to explain and defend my position.”

He then criticised that the platforms were unequal in where they chose to protect the freedom of speech.

"But that is what freedom of speech is to them. On the one hand, they defended those who chose to display offending caricatures of Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. and expect all Muslims to swallow it in the name of freedom of speech and expression. On the other, they deleted deliberately that Muslims had never sought revenge for the injustice against them in the past."

Mahathir added that his appeal to the French to ask their people to be sensitive and respectful of the beliefs of others were "left out".

"What is promoted by these reaction[s] to my article is to stir French hatred for Muslims", he said.

Najib defends Mahathir

Another former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak defended Mahathir, saying that "the world should calm down" and read Mahathir's statement in its full context.

He added that Mahathir didn't mean exactly what he said, and even if he did, it was his personal opinion and not Malaysia's.

The world shld calm down & read @chedetofficial statement in its full context. I'm sure he didn't mean exactly what he said. And even if he did, it's his personal opinion not Malaysia's.

In meantime, some1 shld take away all his social media accounts before he does more damage.

— Mohd Najib Tun Razak (@NajibRazak) October 30, 2020

However, Najib quipped cheekily that Mahathir’s social media accounts should be taken away from him before he does "more damage".

Top image via Mahathir Mohamad's Twitter