Two among the largest organisations of Indian Muslims have focused on the reaction of the French government to the beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty rather than on the knife attacks.

But an unequivocal condemnation of the murders of Paty and three others in a church in Nice on Thursday has come from the Muslim Women’s Forum, India. The forum works for the empowerment, inclusion and education of Muslim women.

A statement signed by former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, one of the founders of the forum, and others said on Thursday: “We remind ourselves of the Quranic injunction — ‘killing an individual is like killing an entire quam (humanity) (Surah 5:32)’. Such an act cannot be accepted by any democratic and civilised society. We want that the perpetrators of the crime are brought to justice quickly.”

One of the signatories, civil rights activist Shabnam Hashmi, told The Telegraph: “Most people are caught up with politics within the country, on which Islamophobia is present. They find it difficult to come out of that prism and do not see extremists among Muslims too. In the last few decades, conservatism has grown in the community. In my youth, we could speak about topics that are called blasphemous today.”

Bhopal, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Aligarh have seen protests against France amid calls in some places for a boycott of French goods.

N.P. Ashley, who teaches English at St Stephen’s College in Delhi and is part of education programmes in his community of Moplah Muslims in Kerala, said the protests in India had brought together conflicting streams of Muslim politics.

“We are seeing two kinds of protests: one by conservatives who feel that you can’t insult the Prophet. The conservatives may be illiberal but they aren’t communal. The second is by Islamists who seem to view the developments as a rerun of the crusades. This is communal and it rejoices in acts like the conversion of the Hagia Sofia into a mosque by Urdugan (Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan),” Ashley said.

“Islamists think of Islam as a civilisation, just like the Islamophobes. The fear of majoritarian targeting or anti-Muslim bigotry should not make Muslims lose their sense of ethics or perspective.”

Author and journalist Ziya Us Salam said: “Outside France reacts to the perceived actions of the French government — which is not a civil society response. When the government puts pictures of the Prophet on buildings, coupled with the statements of Macron, these are seen as acts in bad spirit which are deliberately provocative. No one in a proper frame of mind has justified the killings.”

Paty was beheaded by Chechen refugee Abdoullakh Abouyedovich Anzorov in a Paris suburb on October 16 for displaying cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad during a class on free speech. Such cartoons are seen as blasphemous by Muslims.

Cartoons published by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in 2006 and 2012 had been cited as a motive for the attacks on its offices in 2011 and 2015 in which 12 cartoonists were killed.

Macron has supported the slain teacher and the right to publish cartoons, which have been projected on public buildings in the country after the incident.

On October 21, Macron said: “We will defend the freedom that you (Paty) taught so well, and we will strongly proclaim the concept of laïcité (secularism). We will not disavow the cartoons, the drawings, even if others recoil. We will provide all the opportunities that the Republic owes all its young people, without any discrimination.”

This, as well as his speech on October 2, in which he called Islam a “religion in crisis”, drew condemnation from Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

India has condemned the language being used against Macron, after Erdogan said Macron needed a mental health check.

Twitter has deleted a post by former Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad saying Muslims had the right “to kill millions of French people” for the atrocities of colonialism — a sentence he said was taken out of context.

The full posts of Mahathir said: “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.”

On Tuesday, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, one of the oldest conservative political groups among Muslims, condemned Macron for his alleged Islamophobia.

Jamaat president Syed Sadatullah Hussaini said: “French President Emmanuel Macron is openly exhibiting Islamophobia, one of the reasons for which is his government’s failure on various fronts. For the past few years, one has observed a fair degree of extremism among the Far Right political and non-political groups. It appears as though Macron is resorting to Islamophobia to discredit these organisations…. The French government should objectively evaluate the issue of teacher Samuel Paty, the act by the Chechen student and its aftermath in the context of politics, sociology and psychology.”

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, a national body of clerics led by Maulana Mahmood Madani, had issued statements condemning Macron and the Indian government’s support for him.

Terrorism was condemned but the group blamed France for “encouraging terrorism”.

Madani said on Thursday: “This attitude of the Government of India reflects hostility towards Islam and Muslims. This will no doubt inflict hurt upon not only the 20 crore Muslims of the country but Muslims of the entire world as well secular-minded people.”

In a statement, his group said: “Jamiat condemns every form of terrorism committed by any individual, organisation or State. But at the present, France itself is encouraging terrorism.”