Bassam al Antari-Albawaba.com
Muslim intellectuals and analysts believe that the comments made by the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad in which he reiterated that the Jews control the world are more harmful to the Islamic world than beneficial.
These comments made by the Malaysian leader, known for his harsh criticism of the US and Israel, have sparked controversy worldwide. Many parties denounced his comments. The US president, George W. Bush considered Mahathir’s comments as wrong and divisive while Italy, the current head of the European Union, and Israel described them as "anti Semitic."
However, Mahathir renewed his attack against the Jews and Israel despite the wave of criticism against him for his first comments.
“The world reaction for my comments show that the Jews are actually controlling the world,” the Malaysian PM was quoted as saying by The Bangkok Post.
The Muslim intellectual Kamel al Sharif supports Mahathir’s comments but he said they were misinterpreted. He called the Malaysian PM to issue an explanation that he meant just to the Zionist movement and Jewish activists who support Israel and not to all the Jewish people as Muslims respect this religion.
“What Dr. Mahathir said depicts facts…we feel that despite the small numbers of Jews in the US and Europe, they have big and direct influence on politics in these countries and lead big powers to take actions that are inconsistent with justice, logic or religion,” al Sharif told Albawaba.
The Jordanian intellectual added, “the US, for example, has put itself on the side of Israel despite the fact it is the only superpower with everybody admitting that. The US saves no effort to just please a few Jews because they control the financial and media markets in the US and what applies to the U applies to the western countries too.”
Taking this into account, Sharif sees that Mahathir has not gone beyond facts when he said that few people are controlling the world. Additionally, Sharif sees that the Malaysian Premier meant to the Zionist movement and activists in the US and Europe who support Israel. “He meant the Zionism. According to Islam, Judaism is a heavenly religion and Quran praises the Old Testament and prophet Moses, God has peace upon him, and considers him a great prophet. The Jews lived always in the Islamic countries as a respected minority but the emergence of Zionism and the Israeli hatred for Muslims has overturned the equation,” added Sharif.
Until the dust settles down, Sharif called upon Mahathir to issue a statement that he did not target the Jews as the people of a heavenly religion.
For his part, the head of Arabic studies unit at al Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, Wahid Abdel Majeed, believes that Mahathir’s comments have come to alert the Islamic world for the need for science and use of mind which the Jews have used to achieve their goals rather than to denigrate the Jews.
However, Abdel Majeed thinks that the misunderstanding of Mahathir’s comments led only to harming the Islamic world. “The problem with these statements is that they were ambiguous. The Malaysian PM did not mean the Jews as people but he wanted to show Muslims the way the Jews followed to achieve their goals, including the application of science and proper thinking rather than violence, terror and speech delivering,” said Abdel Majeed.
The Egyptian intellectual added that “Mahathir’s intention was good and his words did not imply that he targeted the Jews as people. He addressed Muslims prompting them to learn from the Jewish experience.”
The problem, Abdel Majeed says, is that “any statements about the Jews these days have become a taboo that would be faced with resentment and denunciation.”
When asked why Mahathir did not use the Chinese or Japanese as examples to deliver his message, he said, “the example becomes more inspiring when you use your opponent. Mahathir wanted to tell Muslims that here you are engaged with a historical struggle with the Jews. Look what you have done and compare it with what they have done and recognize the facts instead of staying as you are.”
According to Abdel Majeed, neither those who were attending the conference nor the majority of Muslims understood or would ever understand anything from Mahathir’s statements and consequently nothing has been left from these statements except their damage to Mahathir and the Islamic world. (Albawaba.com)
