Chirac "King of the frogs" protects Arab anti-semites

Fox News ^ | 10/17/03 | mhg1000

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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.

At their own summit in Brussels, Belgium, European Union leaders had drafted a harshly worded statement condemning Mahathir's remarks, but French President Jacques Chirac blocked the wording from becoming a part of a final declaration.

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PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — Facing international condemnation, a senior Malaysian official Friday defended Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's (search) assertion at an Islamic summit that Jews rule the world, but apologized for any misunderstandings or offense.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar (search) 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.

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.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (search) in Los Angeles, said Mahathir has used anti-Israel statements in the past to prove he's tough on the West. But, he said, Thursday's speech was still worrisome.

"What is profoundly shocking and worrying is the venue of the speech, the audience and coming in the time we're living in," Cooper said in Jerusalem. "Mahathir's speech today 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 left them weakened on the world stage.

But the statements about Jews stood out, and condemnations were swift and unambiguous from the United States, Australia and Germany, which summoned Malaysia's charge d'affaires in Berlin to protest the comments as "totally unacceptable."

"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 who approached him 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."

Syed Hamid noted that Malaysia has a state policy of religious harmony, in which the ethnic Malay Muslim majority lives alongside large non-Muslim Chinese and Indian minorities. The country is one of Southeast Asia's most modern and wealthy, and has jailed terror suspects without qualms.

"How can we be anti-Jew? It is far from the truth," Syed Hamid said.

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 harshly worded statement condemning Mahathir's remarks, but French President Jacques Chirac blocked the wording from becoming a part of a final declaration.

The text had said Mahathir's "unacceptable comments hinder all our efforts to further interethnic and religious harmony, and have no place in a decent world. Such false and anti-Semitic remarks are as offensive to Muslims as they are to others."

Chirac, however, said there was no place in an EU declaration for such a text. EU leaders compromised by having Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi criticize Mahathir at his closing news conference. Officials said the draft text also would be issued as a separate statement and would be posted on the EU presidency Web site.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called Mahathir's comments offensive and repugnant.

"Any suggestion from anybody anywhere in the world of dividing the world into Jewish and non-Jewish groupings is historically indefensible and wrong," Howard told Australia Radio.

Leaders at the Islamic summit included Karzai, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines were special guests because of their large Muslim minorities.