Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Mahathir's extensive remarks
Thursday about Jews were taken out of context in a speech primarily
about empowering Muslims to become a stronger, nonviolent people.
The Malaysian prime minister told leaders of the 57-nation Organization
of the Islamic Conference, the world's largest Muslim grouping,
that "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and
die for them."
The speech 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.
"The civilized world has seen the results of such violent rhetoric
in the past," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement,
calling the speech "a desecration of the memory of 6 million victims
of anti-Semitism."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli called Mahatir's
remarks offensive and inflammatory. "We view them with the contempt
and derision they deserve," he said.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Los Angeles, said Mahathir has used anti-Israel statements
in the past to prove he's tough on the West. But, he said, Thursday's
speech was still worrisome.
"What is profoundly shocking and worrying is the venue of the
speech, the audience and coming in the time we're living in,"
Cooper said in Jerusalem. "Mahathir's speech today is an absolute
invitation for more hate crimes and terrorism against Jews. That's
serious."
Mahathir had used allegations of Jewish dominance to buttress
his chief point, that Muslims needed to embrace modern knowledge
and technology and overcome divisions over religious dogma that
have left them weakened on the world stage.
But the statements about Jews stood out, and condemnations were
swift and unambiguous from the United States, Australia and Germany,
which summoned Malaysia's charge d'affaires in Berlin to protest
the comments as "totally unacceptable."
"I'm sorry that they have misunderstood the whole thing," Syed
Hamid, the foreign minister, told The Associated Press. "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."
Mahathir declined to speak to reporters who approached him Friday,
telling them to wait until an evening news conference.
Syed Hamid said the world's Muslims were in a "quagmire" and
feeling "sidelined or marginalized," reflecting a widespread perception
in the Islamic world as the war on terrorism has evolved into
U.S. wars in Afghanistan (news
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sites) and Iraq (news
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sites), and Israel has increased repression of the Palestinians.
"Please forget about anti-Semitism," Syed Hamid told reporters.
He added that Mahathir's "message is to stop violence, which
is not the answer for us to succeed in our struggle. People may
not be very happy but this is the reality: the Jews are very powerful."
Syed Hamid noted that Malaysia has a state policy of religious
harmony, in which the ethnic Malay Muslim majority lives alongside
large non-Muslim Chinese and Indian minorities. The country is
one of Southeast Asia's most modern and wealthy, and has jailed
terror suspects without qualms.
"How can we be anti-Jew? It is far from the truth," Syed Hamid
said.
Mahathir, a respected leader in the developing world with a long
history of making articulate, provocative comments, is retiring
Oct. 31 after 22 years in power. He told the Islamic leaders that
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," but suggested the use of political and
economic tactics, not violence, to achieve a "final victory."
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."
"Dr. Mahathir spoke of the inhibitions within the Islamic world
and that those inhibitions must go away, and I entirely agree
with that," Karzai said.
At their own summit in Brussels,
Belgium, European Union (news
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sites) leaders had drafted a harshly worded statement condemning
Mahathir's remarks, but French President Jacques Chirac blocked
the wording from becoming a part of a final declaration.
The text had said Mahathir's "unacceptable comments hinder
all our efforts to further interethnic and religious harmony,
and have no place in a decent world. Such false and anti-Semitic
remarks are as offensive to Muslims as they are to others."
Chirac, however, said there was no place in an EU declaration
for such a text. EU leaders compromised by having Italian Premier
Silvio Berlusconi criticize Mahathir at his closing news conference.
Officials said the draft text also would be issued as a separate
statement and would be posted on the EU presidency Web site.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard called Mahathir's comments
offensive and repugnant.
"Any suggestion from anybody anywhere in the world of dividing
the world into Jewish and non-Jewish groupings is historically
indefensible and wrong," Howard told Australia Radio.
Leaders at the Islamic summit included Karzai, Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indonesian President
Megawati Sukarnoputri. Russian President Vladimir Putin (news
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sites) and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (news
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sites) of the Philippines were special guests because of their
large Muslim minorities.
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On the Net:
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