Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said in a tweet that he hopes jihadists target US television networks that refused to show cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad.

"Let's hope that when the Islamists next strike they behead the appeasing cowards at CNN, MSNBC, etall who refused to show the cartoons," Walsh tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

Walsh, who lost his reelection bid in 2012 and is now an often-controversial radio host, was reacting to the many mainstream outlets that decided not to publish the new cover of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine that was the site of a brutal massacre last week. Prior to the attack, Charlie Hebdo infuriated many Muslims for its depictions of Muhammad. This week's defiant cover, the first after the incident, again features an image of the prophet. The gunmen, who killed several staffers at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris, made statements indicating the cartoons motivated the attack.

Pressed on his controversial take, Walsh did not back down. In another tweet, he insisted CNN and MSNBC were putting more lives in danger by not embracing the Charlie Hebdo cover.

"Islamists dont take orders from me and they'll inevitably strike again, and cowards continue to empower them. Get f---ing serious," he wrote.

Here are more of his tweets on the subject: