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Mahathir Feels U.S. Won't Attack Islamic World
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia on Thursday expressed confidence that the United States would not go against the Islamic world in its effort to hunt and capture its prime suspect, Osama bin Laden.
"The U.S. Government has assured us that it will not be going against all Islamic countries because by doing so will mean that it is waging war against Islam.
"Its leaders [have] made it very clear that they are not against Islam, but only interested in going after the terrorists," he told reporters after opening the CEO Summit at the Putra World Trade Center.
Mahathir said he believed that Washington would remain true to its word and would not start waging war against all Islamic countries.
Meanwhile, in a telephone conversation with Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, Mahathir said they discussed issues focusing on at the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) foreign ministers meeting in Doha, Qatar, on October 21st.
"President Khatami called me to make sure that we [Muslim countries] can come to a common stand on the issue of terrorism. Through our conversation, it is clear that Malaysia's stand on the issue is not that much different to that of Iran,'' he said.
"Our stand is that on one hand we are all for hunting down terrorists, but at the same time we are against war. We also think that the problem of terrorism can only be solved by attending to the causes of that problem."
Mahathir reiterated Malaysia's stand against any decision to attack Afghanistan because the ruling Taliban was accused by the United States of harboring bin Laden, that such a move would not be justified.
"Terrorists and their cells exist all over the world, not only in Afghanistan. In fact those people who [have] been accused of perpetrating the attacks [in New York and Washington] had actually lived in the United States.
"They were also not from Afghanistan, but from other Arab countries. But since they had lived in the United States, technically speaking, can we define the United States as harboring terrorists? Certainly not," he added.
OIC to dissociate Islam with terrorism
Next week, during an extraordinary meeting of the OIC, the organization indicated it would ask the world community not to view terrorism as synonymous with Islam.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who will represent his country in Qatar, communicated this information to the press.
He said Muslims worldwide are suffering because certain parties were linking Islam with terrorists and terrorism in the wake of the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington.
"We want this mind-setting and stereotyping about terrorism being synonymous or equal to Islam be rid off because now the Muslims all over the world are suffering," he told reporters.
Syed Hamid said the issue of terrorism would have to be viewed in the context of bringing about a settlement to the Southwest Asian conflict and the Palestinian problem.
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