KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16: The US-led hunt for terrorists is turning into a “war against Muslims”, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Friday.
“Despite protests that the war against terrorists is not war against Islam, what cannot be denied is that only Muslim terrorists are being targeted,” he said at a two-day conference on terrorism.
Mahathir said there was talk that the war would be extended to other countries such as Iraq, although there has been no proof that it aided prime terror suspect Osama bin Laden and his followers.
He referred to American Timothy McVeigh, responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and what he said were suspicions that anthrax terrorism in the US was the work of “violently rightist Christians”.
“While there is talk about attacking Iraq, there is no violent rage against the spreaders of anthrax or McVeigh’s supporters.
“We hate to say it but it is beginning to look more and more like a war against Muslims,” Mahathir said.
“This impression can only be got rid of if actions are taken also against those people who terrorise the Muslims, such as against the Israelis in Palestine.”
Mahathir, who has cited the Middle East conflict as a root cause of terrorism, also urged the United Nations to step in to “forcibly” separate the Israelis and Palestinians.
The premier said the Muslim world, weak and unable to help the Palestinians, saw the west’s unwillingness to prevent Israeli attacks as a sign that the west was “anti-Palestine, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim”.
He said the suicide bombers in the Sept 11 attack on the United States were not “fanatical illiterates who only see heaven in after-life” but resorted to terror tactics in anger at the Palestinian issue.
Mahathir reiterated his stand that attacking Afghanistan would not wipe out terrorism but would only fuel Muslim anger and spawn more terrorists.
“The world is going to be saddled with the terrorist problem forever and we don’t know what new villainy they would think of.”
Mahathir told a press conference later that he hoped for an “early end” to the strikes in Afghanistan but said it was too early to cheer the Northern Alliance’s victory Tuesday in capturing Kabul.
“If a city is being bombed continuously, it would be stupid of the Taliban to stay and get bombed out. I think they have moved somewhere where they would not be so easily bombed,” he said.
“The first round has gone to the Northern Alliance but we will see... I pray that they will be successful without too much sacrifice in the lives of innocents.”
Mahathir said he had written a letter to US President George W.Bush seeking a halt to the bombings in Afghanistan and the use of ground forces instead to limit damage.
He called for the United Nations to send troops to resolve the Middle East conflict.
“To expect Israel and Palestine to settle their problem is expecting a little too much because each is trying to make use of their own terror tactics to gain grounds for themselves,” he said.
“The UN forces must be allowed in and they must be forcibly separated. Israel should not fly their helicopter... and rocket the Palestinian area. That is an act of terror. Nobody should shoot at anybody.”—AFP