French Muslim Olympic Runner Suspended for ‘Unacceptable’ Anti-Israel, Antisemitic Social Media Posts
Shiryn Ghermezian
Paris 2024 Olympics – Athletics – Men’s 4 x 400m Relay Round 1 – Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France – August 09, 2024. Muhammad Abdallah Kounta of France in action during heat 2. Photo: Reuters/Sarah Meyssonnier
A French Muslim sprinter who recently competed in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris has been suspended by the French Athletics Federation for posting antisemitic and anti-Israel messages on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Two-time Olympian Muhammad Abdallah Kounta, 29, who competed in the 4×400-meter men’s and mix relay races during the Paris Olympics, posted hateful messages on X that “are as shocking as they are unacceptable,” France’s Minister of Sports Amelie Oudea-Castera said Wednesday in a French-language post on X.
“The federation’s president confirmed he has suspended the athlete and referred the matter both to the public prosecutor and to the federation’s disciplinary committee,” Oudea-Castera added.
A day earlier, an X account by the name Sword of Solomon drew attention to some controversial French-language tweets posted by Kounta between 2021 and 2024. In the various posts, Kounta praised Hamas terrorists responsible for the Oct. 7 deadly attacks in Israel, “incited hatred of Israel, trivialized the Holocaust and quoted a surah [chapter] from the Koran considering Jews and Christians as enemies,” according to Sword of Solomon, which also shared screenshots of the athlete’s tweets. Kounta additionally reposted a tweet that described France as a “country of degenerate racists” and liked the Facebook page of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is internationally designated as a terrorist organization.
After his old posts on X were resurfaced, Kounta — who made his Olympic debut in the 2020 Tokyo Games – posted a picture on social media of himself wrapped in a French flag and wrote in the caption: “I am French, Muslim and proud.” He then apologized if he had offended people with his past remarks.
“I’m against genocides and all forms of racism or injustice, and I don’t think I need to prove how much I love my country,” Kounta said. “People who were there in the Stade de France [where the athletic events took place] can attest to that fact.”
France has seen a record surge in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.
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