Mahathir says Muslims should emulate Jews

[DuctapeFatwa]

Malaysia’s retired veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad revisited the storm of controversy surrounding his final days, by saying on Thursday that Muslims should reject terror and learn from the Jews.


Mahathir provoked a welter of criticism from Western governments and Israel by saying that Jews ruled the world by proxy in his last big speech before retiring at the end of October. ”My speech was balanced and unfortunately the focus was all on what I said about the Jews,” Mahathir told Reuters in an interview.

“But I was also very critical of the Muslims. I told them to stop all this terror attacks. It’s not getting you anywhere,” said the 78-year old ex-prime minister.

“I pointed out the Jews for 2,000 years withstood the pogroms the holocausts and all that, and they never retaliated. It is only as a result they have made progress,” he explained, seated in a reception room of the Perdana Leadership Foundation he now heads in Putrajaya — the administrative capital built in his last years in office. “You should emulate the Jews. I’m telling Muslims to follow the Jews. But of course the Jews never noticed that,” he said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2004/March/theworld_March409.xml§ion=theworld

[absyntheNsugar]

1. Foot...Mouth...Insert...

Wow! Is this guy related to Dan Quayle at all?

[Muddleoftheroad]

2. No

When this guy puts his foot in his mouth, it's because he is goosestepping.

[thingfish]

14. He makes perfectly good sense, and is in no way goose-stepping.

x

[Imagine If]

15. I agree.

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. So you disagree with Mahatir about terror attacks?

[aquart]

3. So he never heard of the Stern Gang?

[PartyPooper]

4. Is this guy for real?

:wow:

[mobuto]

6. All of which begs the question

Does Mahatir actually know any Jews?

I have rather strong doubts on that.

[a_random_joel]

7. It is important for him to say this.

Unfortunately, on the heels of past remarks his credibility is tainted.

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. He is referring to his past remarks. That is what he said in the same

speech that caused all the controversy, but the press did not report that part of the speech. You can google and find the speech in its entirety.

[a_random_joel]

10. My bad.

Still a credibility gap...

[Mad_Bulgarian]

9. Is this wrong?

The Jews have many outstanding accomplishments in science and society. There is nothing wrong for the Muslims to do the same. There is nothing wrong with learning from other nations, for instance, we in Bulgaria learned of freedom and democratic from America, for which we are eternally grateful.

[iamjoy]

21. Welcome To DU!

:hi:

[mainer]

11. Well, Malaysia is an interesting country

Although Islam is the official national religion, it's interesting how Malaysia still manages to be a tolerant place where Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists interact pretty well. There's a large non-religious Chinese ethnic minority there, too. So he has an interesting perspective, seeing them all.

I visited kuala lumpur last year and was fascinated by how modern and well-run it is as a city.

[54anickel]

12. I'm no big fan, but Mahathir gets a bum rap once is a while.

Seems his remarks sometimes get taken out of context and are read thru those anti-semitic detection goggles. Once in a while it seems the west gets too uptight about political correctness and misses the point that people from other cultures are trying to make. I think you have to keep the history of various cultures in mind when people speak. Try to get the true message, ask for clarification when something rubs you the wrong way.

My mama always taught me to find the good in evil and the evil in the good. She was correct, and I have always tried to keep an open and discerning mind because of her.

JMHO

[Cato1]

16. I believe Mahathir...

...started his tirades against Jews after George Soros attacked the Malaysian currency in the late 1990s. I think Soros is still banned from entering Malaysia.

[54anickel]

24. Thanks, I didn't know Soros was Jewish. Check out these articles I

stumbled across.

http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/03/11/JTA071103.html

http://www.geocities.com/ecocorner/intelarea/gs10.html

[DuctapeFatwa]

13. Look up Sisters in Islam sometime if you get a chance

They've been around since the early 80s or so, hard to say who should be scareder of them - the half-literate raving Mullahs or the Mullah's secret Sugar Uncle Amrika :evilgrin:

[54anickel]

17. Aw, come on DTF, give us a clue as to what you mean.

[DuctapeFatwa]

19. ok here's a spoon with a link in it :)

http://www.theage.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2004/02/19/1077072762854.html

[54anickel]

23. Thanks DTF, you're the best! This is interesting indeed! Maybe we can

get a group of sisters together to do a similar thing on the bigoted, literal reading, fundie Christian side!

Go Sisters!!!

[Just Me]

18. I, for one, am not going to do an "auto-persecute",...

,...of this leader when he is demonstrating some balance and encouraging unity. Geez,...I find it incredible that there are those elite paranoid cabals attacking Muslims when that cabal's most recent horror was a Christian (Hitler). What the f*ck is wrong with these extremists? They have no handle on how their own paranoia and aggression is breeding hostility. These obsessed leaders are projecting their frighteningly dark hearts on the rest of the world!!! How is it that we ended up with such totally off-balance leaderships? God, I am sick of this wacko prism!!! It is tearing my country and the rest of the world apart.

[struggle4progress]

20. What the #$@! do the last posted three sentences mean?

:shrug:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Mahathir is autocratic, but he's a cagey old bird

After the Asian currency crisis of 1997, Mahathir instituted strict controls on currency transactions, and all the talking heads predicted economic disaster for Malaysia because of it's interference in the holy, sacred, they-who-must-be-obeyed "free markets."

But Malaysia recovered faster than any of the other countries affected.