“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 wrote in his blog.

“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,” he added, directing his remarks to French president Emmanuel Macron.

In the post, Dr Mahathir also accused Macron of not being civilised and “primitive”, for allegedly blaming Islam and Muslims after a teacher was beheaded earlier this month in Paris for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a civics lesson.