I am going to post that article since it won't be available after a couple of weeks. Remarkable.
``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.''
How exactly can we "forget about anti-Semitism" when he says these things: ``Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.''
Talking as if "Jews" are one monolithic people--it is so absurd that it would be hysterically funny if it weren't so stereotypically dangerous. It is as laughable as claiming that Arabs or Moslems or Buddhists or any other large transnational group was one united entity (or any large national group, for that matter).
Malaysia Apologizes for Comments About Jews
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 17, 2003
Filed at 11:30 a.m. ET
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) -- Facing international condemnation, a senior Malaysian official Friday defended Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's assertion at an Islamic summit that Jews rule the world, but apologized for any misunderstandings or offense.
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.
Advertisement
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.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said they were ``historically indefensible and wrong.'' In Berlin, Germany summoned Malaysia's charge d'affaires to protest the comments as ``totally unacceptable.''
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.''
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 weakened them.
``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 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 and Iraq, 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.''
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 leaders had drafted a harsh statement condemning Mahathir's remarks, but French President Jacques Chirac blocked it from becoming a part of a final declaration, saying it had no place there. Instead, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi criticized Mahathir at his closing news conference.
In other action at the Islamic summit, the leaders Friday:
-- Urged a faster transition to full sovereignty for Iraq, but toned down an earlier plan calling for a greater role for the United Nations.
-- Strongly condemned threats by the Israeli government against Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The nations also asked the international community to force Israel to remove a security barrier that winds into Palestinian land and to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from Palestinian and Arab territories.
-- Condemned the recent Israeli attack inside Syria as a violation of international law and the U.N. charter, and urged U.S. Security Council to prevent a recurrence.
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
