Courtesy of JTA. Photo credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Muhammad Abdallah Kounta during the 4 x 400-meter relay mixed final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris
(JTA) — A French Olympian was suspended by the French Athletics Federation on Wednesday after past social media posts resurfaced in which he supported Hamas and wished suffering upon Zionists.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, France’s minister for sports and the Olympics, confirmed on social media that the federation president had suspended Muhammad Abdallah Kounta, who competed in the men’s 4 x 400-meter relay last week at the Paris Olympics, for remarks that she called “as shocking as they are unacceptable.”
Oudéa-Castéra also thanked the account “Sword Of Salomon,” which had shared screenshots of some of Kounta’s social media activity. The posts, all of them in French, dated back to 2021.
One post “Sword Of Salomon” highlighted, which Kounta reposted in May, read, “May Allah grant the most terrible and horrible degree of hell to the Zionists and their supporters, rabbi, may they suffer for eternity.” The word “Zionists” was written with symbols in place of some of the letters.
According to the Times of Israel, Kounta also shared a post during the Israel-Hamas war asking Allah to “strike the Zionists,” and one sent on Oct. 7 that praised Hamas while featuring a photo of Shiri Bibas, an Israeli who was taken captive that day with her two young children and who has become a symbol of the hostages. On Aug. 1, during the Olympics, Kounta also reportedly reposted a post calling Israeli judoka Sagi Muki a “child killer.”
Another post, from December 2021, which Kounta himself posted, quoted the Quran. “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as allies; they are allies of one another,” the post read. “And whoever among you takes them as allies, he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people.”
Kounta responded to the revelations on social media, posting a photo of himself wrapped in the French flag with the caption: “I AM FRENCH, MUSLIM AND PROUD… People have 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, antisemitic, and so on.”
Kounta apologized in a subsequent post.
“I sincerely apologize if anyone felt offended,” Kounta wrote. “I am against genocide and any form of racism or injustice, and I don’t think I need to prove how much I love my country. The people present at the Stade de France will be able to testify to that.”
Israeli athletes, who won a record seven medals at the Paris Games, had faced death threats and antisemitic chants from fans during the Olympics. Israel’s delegation received 24/7 security throughout the event.
