Much has been made, especially in Malaysia and Israel over some recent statements that were made by our Prime Minister, the right honorable Dr. Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, during the OIC meeting. The statement that offended the most (to the Israelis and the rest of the world) was that “Jews rule the world”. Frankly, I do not know how to make of it but if someone said that the Chinese rule the world, I would be pretty happy. And smug. Probably go out and test my new master/ruler attitude on the peons who toil for my pleasure.
Or perhaps, the Israelis were unhappy with further statements like “Jews get people to die for their causes”. Maybe, just maybe, they are pissed off because Mahathir stated the the “Jews rule the world by proxy”. I mean, the nerve of the guy to imply that a proxy IS required in the first place!
But seriously, I think that the Jewish conspiracy thing has been carried out for far too long. I mean if it lasts this long, it’s probably true just like the Who-Killed-JFK-Conspiracy or The-Government(US)-Covered-Up-UFO-Conspiracy. My advice is to my Jewish friends who are offended to lighten up a little bit and to take the speech in context.
The speech was made to an assembly of Islamic country leaders and, in my humble opinion, provocatively addresses pertinent issues that are faced by the global Muslim community. Mahathir goes off on his usual paternal tough-love lecturing on how some Muslims have got it all wrong (ie. suicide bombings, tribal in-figthing, shunning of technology and knowledge, etc). Now those who had followed his speeches during UMNO assemblies would find nothing out of place but all these could be unnerving for some of the international delegates present in the shiny new convention center in Putrajaya. All this is akin to watching Dr. Phil tear up Oprah’s guests and audience because he truly cares (and loves) them.
Taken in context, the speech berated the Muslims for not following in the Jew’s footsteps. If this came from a non-Muslim, cries of protests (and perhaps death warrants) would be heard from extremist and religiously perverted groups from around the world. Hopefully, the speech will inspire some leader to look into the whole Muslim-Jewish-West confrontation with a shift in paradigm, that is conquering the enemy through peaceful acts and words.
My perspective is that people should try the peaceful protest way. People should learn from the culture and history of India, a proud country that has given birth to 2 of the world’s best known pacifists:- Buddha and Gandhi. Not that I am asking people to convert to Buddhism- though it is not really a religion- but to follow in the footsteps of using peace to overcome adversity. Now if only India can do the same thing with Pakistan…but that, my readers, is for another blog.
* Do note that the quotes from Mahathir’s speech are NOT in verbatim but has been recalled from the author’s memory as he did not have access to the Internet during the writing of this blog 🙂