Muslims urged to ‘unite against Jews’

THE biggest summit of Islamic leaders in three years opened yesterday with calls for the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims to unite against “a few million Jews” who allegedly rule the world and get others to fight and die for them.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Muslims for years mistakenly believed that Islam rejected new technology and progress.

He urged Muslims worldwide to ignore teachings by religious fundamentalists that scientific studies were “un-Islamic”.

“We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our defence,” Mr Mahathir told leaders from 57 nations gathered for a summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Malaysia’s new capital, Putrajaya.

“Because we are discouraged from learning science and mathematics ... today we have no capacity to produce our weapons for our defence,” said the Malaysian leader, chairman of the two-day summit.

Mr Mahathir, who is known for his outspoken and anti-Western rhetoric, criticised what he described as Jewish domination of the world and Muslim nations’ inability to adequately respond.

“The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy,” he said. “They get others to fight and die for them.”

Malaysia, a democratic nation which has a large non-Muslim population and does not enforce strict Islamic law, has long been a critic of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and of the United States’ policy in the Middle East, including the war in Iraq and its strong backing of the Jewish state.

Mr Mahathir, 77, who is retiring on October 31, has used almost every international podium to lambaste the West for two decades, winning a reputation as an outspoken champion of Third World causes.

“For well over half a century we have fought over Palestine. What have we achieved? Nothing. We are worst off than before,” he said. “If we had paused to think, then we could have devised a plan, a strategy that can win us final victory.”

The prime minister, who has turned his country into the world’s 17th-ranked trading nation during his 22 years in power, said that Jews “invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy” to avoid persecution and to gain control of the most powerful countries.

Mahathir added that “1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews”, but he suggested using political and economic tactics instead of violence.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled expressed disappointment in the remarks but said he wasn’t surprised.

“It is not new that in such forums there is always an attempt to reach of the lowest common denominator which is Israel bashing,” he said in Jerusalem.

“But obviously we’d like to see more moderate and responsible kinds of declarations coming out of such summits.”

US Ambassador to Malaysia, Marie Huhtala, declined to comment on Mr Mahathir’s speech.

Washington was angered over a speech he made in February, as host of the Non-Aligned Movement of 117 countries, in which he described the looming war against Iraq as racist.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he supported Mahathir’s analysis, which also included steps for how Muslim nations can develop economically and socially.

“It is great to hear Prime Minister Mahathir speak so eloquently on the problems of the ummah (Muslim world) and ways to remedy them,” Mr Karzai said.

“His speech was an eye-opener to a lot of us and that is what the Islamic world should do.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, are attending the summit as special observers because of the large Muslim minority groups within their countries.