Malaysian prime minister refuses to back down from speech : Jews rule

[Guest guest]

Malaysian prime minister refuses to back down from speech in which he said Jews rule the world

 

PATRICK McDOWELL, Associated Press Writer Friday, October 17, 2003

 

 

(10-17) 10:03 PDT PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) --

 

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad refused to apologize Friday for a speech in which he said Jews ruled the world, accusing the West of a double standard in criticizing Muslims and Jews.

 

Defending himself against international condemnation, Mahathir gave a news conference a day after addressing the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, the world's largest Muslim group.

 

In the speech, he said that "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

 

The statement drew immediate criticism from Israel, the United States and other countries, and raised fears that it could fan violence against Jews. But it got a standing ovation from the kings, presidents, sheiks and emirs -- including key U.S. allies -- gathered in Malaysia's capital, Putrajaya.

 

On Friday, Mahathir said Westerners such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell receive little fallout for labeling the Prophet Muhammed a "terrorist," while statements about Israel's actions against Palestinians draw immediate charges of anti-Semitism.

 

Falwell, a conservative Baptist minister, outraged Muslims by saying in an interview last year with CBS' "60 Minutes" that he had concluded Muhammad "was a terrorist."

 

"Are we not allowed at all to criticize the Jews if they do things which are wrong?" Mahathir asked. "If Muslims can be accused of being terrorists, then others can accuse the Jews of being terrorists also."

 

Mahathir, 77, a senior statesmen in the developing world who will retire Oct. 31 after 22 years in office, has long been an outspoken leader. He is a staunch advocate of the Palestinians and strongly opposed the war in Iraq, but also has jailed terror suspects from the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group.

 

In his news conference, Mahathir accused "most" European leaders -- by which he also generally means Americans and Australians -- of being biased.

 

"The fact is that they are biased," Mahathir said. "Most of them are biased. Not all; most of them. And they feel that while it is proper to criticize Muslims and Arabs, it is not proper to criticize Europeans and Jews. Apparently, they think they are privileged people."

 

Mahathir said the thrust of his speech had been to urge Muslims to step back from violence, rethink their strategies, and find a peaceful way through acquiring knowledge to gain strength and unity so they would gain respect and their rights.

 

"What I said in my speech is that we should stop all this violence, all these killings, all these suicide bombings, all this massive retaliation," Mahathir said. "I am against violence, I am against terrorism."

 

He also said that remarks earlier Friday by his foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar that expressed regret over misunderstandings if any offense occurred did not amount to an apology.

 

Syed Hamid had told The Associated Press: "I'm sorry that they have misunderstood the whole thing. The intention is not to create controversy. His intention is to show that if you ponder and sit down to think, you can be very powerful."

 

In his speech, Mahathir had said Muslims had achieved "nothing" in more than 50 years of fighting Israel.

 

"They survived 2,000 years of pogroms not by hitting back but by thinking," Mahathir said of the Jews. "They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others."

 

Mahathir said the world's 1.3 billion Muslims "cannot be defeated by a few million Jews."

 

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli called Mahatir's remarks offensive and inflammatory.

 

Israel's Foreign Ministry said it was "a desecration of the memory of 6 million victims of anti-Semitism."

 

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said Mahathir's speech "is an absolute invitation for more hate crimes and terrorism against Jews. That's serious."

 

In their reactions to the speech, most of the leaders at the summit focused on the aspects that Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher called "a good road map" toward Muslim empowerment.

 

Asked by the AP whether he thought the speech was anti-Semitic, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: "I don't think so."

 

 

[Kulapavana 0]

Source: Herald Sun

Published: October 28, 2003 Author: N/A

 

MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad hit back yesterday against those who condemned him for saying that Jews rule the world but were silent when the Muslim Prophet Muhammad was called a terrorist.

 

"Are we not allowed to say that we are angry with the Jews? Are the Jews some kind of creature who cannot be condemned in any way?" Mahathir asked when questioned by reporters about the fierce international criticism of his remarks.

He said he knew a lot of Jewish people and was not against them, the official Bernama news agency reported.

 

"I am against those Jews who kill Muslims and the Jews who support the killers of Muslims," he was quoted as saying.

 

Mahathir said that he did not care if the Europeans, who were among his major critics, did not like him.

 

"I have European friends. But when they do something wrong, I am going to tell them that it is wrong.

 

"You say that you are not under the influence of the Jews and yet when I criticise the Jews, the whole of the European Union wants to condemn me.

 

"But when somebody condemns the Muslims, calls my Prophet (Muhammad) terrorist and all that, did the European Union say anything? Which shows that they are under the thumb of the Jews."

 

US Christian fundamentalist preacher Jerry Falwell called Muhammad a "terrorist" in a television interview in September last year, sparking outrage in the Muslim world.

 

More recently, a United States general has been under fire for casting the war on terrorism as a Christian struggle against Satan, but retains his post as deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence.

 

Lieutenant General William Boykin recalled in a speech how a top lieutenant of Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid, Osman Otto, boasted on CNN he would never be caught because Allah would protect him.

 

"Well, you know what?" Boykin was quoted as saying. "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

 

Mahathir regularly points to such utterances as proof of double standards applied in western countries.

 

Asked today why some Muslim leaders did not openly express support over his remarks about Jews, Mahathir said that possibly they were afraid that action would be taken against them.

 

"They are much weaker than we are. They may have more money but they are still dependent upon the Europeans.

 

"Because of that, they are reluctant to make their voices heard but privately of course they will support," he said.

 

At the weekend, Mahathir said a call by a US-based Jewish lobby group for an economic boycott against Malaysia over his remarks may hurt economically but the country would not give in to "blackmail".

 

The influential Simon Wiesenthal Centre last week called on investors and tourists to avoid Malaysia after Mahathir branded Jews "arrogant" and accused them of controlling the world by proxy.

 

[Streetstraw 0]

Yes, if you criticize certain people you are called anti-semitic. Funny how repressed Palestinians are even more 'semitic' that modern day people who emigrate to Israel claiming it THEIR homeland.

Both sides should become vegetarian & Chant Hare Krsna, otherwise - no hope.

[Kulapavana 0]

for the pious Jews Israel was supposed to be the religious shangri-la, for the demonic crooks: safe cave to hide from "persecution" by goyim. Once again religious sentiment is used by evil people to manipulate others in a typical Kali-yuga fashion.