Drawing on his infinite wisdom, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad claims that antisemitism is nothing more than an artificial construct.
Interviewed by the Associated Press the other day, he said, “There is one race that cannot be criticized. If you are antisemitic, it seems almost as if you are a criminal. Antisemitic is a term that is invented to prevent people from criticizing the Jews for doing wrong things.”
Very interesting.
As he understands it, antisemitism is a figment of the imagination — a weapon in the hands of Jews to manipulate public opinion. To Mohamad, who was recently elected Malaysia’s prime minister for the second time, antisemitism is a Jewish creation pure and simple.
Blithely disregarding the long and dreadful course of antisemitism, which climaxed with the Holocaust, Mohamad trivializes the world’s longest hatred to exonerate himself for being a racist and an antisemite. As he put it, he exercises his “right of free speech” to defend himself. “They (Jews) criticize me, why can’t I criticize them?”
On top of it all, he has the audacity to deny his dislike of Jews.
Has he no shame? Does he take us for idiots?
At the age of 92, he should be old enough to realize that antisemitism is a pathological illness that has caused untold misery and violence over the centuries. But Mohamad has no qualms whatsoever about his noxious views. Indeed, he has said he is “glad to be labelled antisemitic.”
As he explained, in an implicit reference to Israel, “How can it be otherwise, when the Jews who so often talk of the horrors they suffered during the Holocaust show the same Nazi cruelty and hard-heartedness towards not just their enemies but even towards their allies should any try to stop the senseless killing of their Palestinian enemies.”
Whether he likes it or not, Mohamad is a latter-day Nazi, ideologically at least. He has the dubious distinction of being the only national leader who regularly attacks Jews.
Mohamad established his “credentials” at the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur 15 years ago. Addressing that forum, he declared, “1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way. And we can only find a way if we stop to think, to assess our weaknesses and our strength, to strategize and then to counterattack. We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out.”
In his speech, Mohamad urged Muslims to emulate the Jewish response to oppression, saying that Jews had “survived 2,000 years of pogroms not by hitting back, but by thinking.”
According to his twisted version of history, Jews are and have been all things to all men. As he said, “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.”
Jews, he added, rule the universe: “They have gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power.”
This is the kind of malicious nonsense dredged up in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and similar antisemitic propaganda.
Mohamad is a discredit to himself and a disgrace to Malaysia.