THE RISING EAST
Ex-Malaysia leader his own worst enemy
By Richard Halloran
A subtle but yet unspoken question: How much damage to the cause of Muslims who seek to portray Islam as a religion of peace has been done by the former prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, with his intemperate comments about Jews?
Associated Press
In welcoming Muslim leaders to a mid-October Islamic summit conference in Malaysia, Mahathir contended that the world's 1.3 billion Muslims were dominated by the world's 13 million Jews, then asserted that "1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews." He contended: "Today, the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."
Mahathir Mohamad, left, bade farewell to supporters on leaving the prime minister's office in Putrajaya on Oct. 31. Mahathir, who stepped down following 22 years in charge of the small Southeast Asian country, provoked widespread outrage when he said the world's 1.3 billion Muslims were being dominated by the world's 13 million Jews. The U.S. Senate cut off $1.2 million in aid to Malaysia after the comments.
Muslim leaders from 57 nations there greeted Mahathir's declaration with applause, as did others later around the world, and Mahathir continued in the same vein in speeches and news conferences until he stepped down on Oct. 31 after 22 years in office.
Elsewhere, a furor erupted. President Bush personally rebuked Mahathir when they met in Bangkok at a gathering of Asian and Pacific leaders. Congress passed a resolution repudiating Mahathir's remarks as "despicable" and the Senate cut off $1.2 million in aid to Malaysia. Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, who had long feuded with Mahathir, said the Malaysian's remarks were "offensive" and "repugnant." European leaders joined in the chorus of outrage.
The Malaysian foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar, sought to tamp down the criticism, claiming: "Islam has never advocated being anti-anybody, including the Jews." He added, however: "The only problem with the Jews is the state of Israel."
The strongest condemnation came from Mahathir's former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, who has been in prison for five years under charges widely believed to have been trumped up by Mahathir. "It is nothing but pure and utter sensationalism," Anwar said through his lawyer, "primarily to deflect attention from his misdeeds and stench from the rot in his own back yard."
Ever since Islamic terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, many Muslims have sought to distance themselves from Islamic extremists.
The Economist magazine, in a survey of Islam on the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks, found that, since then, "Muslim clerics and intellectuals joined ordinary Muslims throughout the world in denouncing the atrocity al-Qaida had perpetrated in their name." For ordinary Muslims, the survey said, Islam was "a way of organizing life in accordance with God's will."
Today in America, for instance, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has opened a campaign focusing on the holy month of Ramadan, which runs until Nov. 25, that is intended to "show the positive sides of Muslim life."
An e-mail message to CAIR asking whether Mahathir had hurt their cause, however, produced a noncommittal answer: "We prefer to focus on our efforts and not worry too much about other people's comments and whether or not they counter what we try to say."
In many ways, Mahathir has been his own worst enemy. His address to the Muslim leaders was a searing indictment of their rule while his inflammatory rhetoric about Jews took only a few lines. That, however, attracted all the attention and thus wiped out most of his message.
In particular, Mahathir pointed to the rivalries within Islam. "We continue to ignore the Islamic injunction to unite and to be brothers to each other, we the governments of the Islamic countries and the ummah," Mahathir said. Ummah means the worldwide Islamic community.
Like many Muslim leaders, Mahathir sought to blame others for the poverty, illiteracy and strife within Muslim nations. Then he lashed out at his audience for doing nothing, which he claimed had turned Muslim extremists to terror.
"Our only reaction," he said, "is to become more and more angry. Angry people cannot think properly. And so we find some of our people reacting irrationally. They launch their own attacks, killing just about anybody, including fellow Muslims, to vent their anger.
"There is a feeling of hopelessness among the Muslim countries and their people," Mahathir lamented. "They feel they can do nothing right. They believe that things can only get worse. The Muslims will be forever oppressed and dominated by the Europeans and the Jews."
Mahathir continued right up to the end, with a parting shot: "As Shakespeare said, 'The evil men do lives after them, and the good is oft interred with their bones.' " After spending his political life condemning Europeans, Americans and Jews, did Mahathir sense the irony of quoting the West's most famous author for his epitaph?
Richard Halloran is a former New York Times correspondent in Asia.
