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Malaysia Conference To Define ‘What & Who’ Constitutes A Terrorist
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| Mahathir: "There is no Malaysian connection in the US attacks" |
By IslamOnline Correspondent, Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 29 (IslamOnline) - An upcoming international meeting organized by Malaysia seeks to define the term “terrorist” and seek a common stand among Muslim countries on terrorism, the country’s Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammad, said on Tuesday, January 29, 2002.
Presently there has yet to be a concerted effort towards defining what and who constitutes a terrorist, Mohamad said.
"Now the definition tends to be confined only to Islamic nations and Muslims at large whereas Israel and the Jews are also terrorist state or people. Even Russia, for that matter, is a terrorist state as it has killed thousands of Chechens.
"Hurling bombs which kill thousands of innocent people is terrorism," he said in response to questions at a dialogue with participants of a conference on issues and opening up of the Malay mind on Tuesday.
The dialogue touched upon the issue of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) which is viewed as ineffective in tackling problems faced by Muslim nations and defending them despite being financially well-endowed.
Mahathir said he hoped OIC member countries would attend the proposed meeting and hold a common stand on crucial issues besides coming to the defense of Muslim countries.
Muslims around the world were shocked by the absence of decision making within the OIC before and even after the U.S. attacks against Afghanistan.
While it condemned terrorism and sympathized with the U.S. over the September 11 events, it failed to address the real issues of terrorism leaving the battle in the hands of the U.S.
Mahathir attributed the OIC's failure in coming to the defense of Islamic countries and Muslims partly to the Muslims themselves rejecting Muslim brotherhood, one of the most basic of Islamic teachings.
After the Second World War, the British and the French set up nation states in West Asia, creating individual Arab states which were once borderless Islamic entities, he said.
"Upon becoming individual Islamic states, their preoccupation was with selfish national pursuits at the expense of neglecting the Muslim masses to fight against each other instead," he further insisted.
The Malaysian premier said that such a situation transpired as a result of the way the West dictated who should be at the helm of the Arab states concerned.
"As they become nation states, Islam has taken a back seat and the nation states become the greater thing. In determining their survival, these states instead become enemies rather than Muslim allies," he said.
Mahathir lamented that within the OIC itself, differences persisted even in matters that only demanded unison.
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