French Athlete Muhammad Abdallah Kounta Faces Backlash Amid Controversial Tweets

A few hours after many of his tweets came to light, Muhammad Abdallah Kounta speaks out. On Instagram and X, he posted a message this Wednesday late morning accompanied by two photos of him with the French flag. This Tuesday evening, the vice-president of the Île-de-France region Patrick Karam denounced these tweets, more or less old, relaying a post from the X account SwordOfSalomon. The local elected official denounced “unacceptable remarks” which “deserve the heaviest sanctions”, taking for example tweets in which the athlete, a 400m specialist, incited hatred against Israel and its Olympic athletes, or even used the word “soufFrance” to talk about the French country. While according to Patrick Karam, the French Athletics Federation must rule on the case of the man who participated in the men's and mixed 4x400 relays at the Paris Games, the 29-year-old athlete posted two photos on Instagram. Two photos in which we see him with a French flag around him, accompanied by a message. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Muhammad Abdallah Kounta (@misryyy) “I am French, Muslim and proud,” begins Kounta. And to continue: “People had fun digging through my tweets and taking some of my comments out of context, creating a reputation for me as anti-white, anti-France, anti-Semitic, and I in progress. I sincerely apologize if anyone felt offended. I am against genocides and any form of racism or injustice, and I think I don't need to prove how much I love my country. The people present at the Stade de France will be able to testify to this.