It is vitally important that people of all backgrounds
understand that today's anti-Semitism, while aimed at Jews, stems
from a belief system that equally rejects Americans and indeed
Western civilization as a whole. When Jews are killed in Jerusalem,
or synagogues are attacked in Britain and France, Americans in New
York, Philadelphia, and Chicago become more vulnerable.
The words from his mouth were no accident. He did not make a slip
of the tongue, nor was he misquoted or taken out of context.
On the contrary, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has
reaffirmed his beliefs many times since his speech to the assembled
leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference in
Kuala Lumpur. Muslims had better get their act together, he said,
because "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and
die for them."
The bald anti-Semitism of Dr. Mahathir's comments was immediately
condemned by the U.S. State Department, and by President Bush
during his swing through Asia. But not surprisingly, in Europe
&endash; where anti-Semitic attacks have been on the upswing
over the past three years - foreign ministries either kept silent
or covered it with mayonnaise.
In Brussels, French President Jacques urged fellow European leaders
to shelve a statement condemning Mahathir as inappropriate for a
European summit. After he was harshly criticized in Israel (where
one daily splashed his picture across the front page with a
screaming headline: "the face of French anti-Semitism"), Chirac
sent a weak letter to Mahathir, for which the Malaysian premier
thanked him for his "understanding."
The French foreign ministry reaction to Mahathir's statement was
contained in these three sentences. "We respect the Organization of
the Islamic Conference. We respect the huge Muslim community
represented by that organization. We expect that those who express
themselves in the name of the OIC would have the same respect for
other religions, in harmony with the spirit of tolerance that is
the spirit of Islam."
But Dr. Mahathir's comments were not just intolerant: they were
baldly racist, bubbling up from a deep underground spring that for
centuries has fed bigots and murderers. Jews, he went on, "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. With these they have now gained control
of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have
become a world power."
Think of it: a Jewish world conspiracy, operating in secret, today
controls the world's most powerful countries. Adolph Hitler shared
that belief, as do the homicide bombers who kill Jews on a daily
basis. This is the basic covenant of the anti-Semitic creed.
In interviews I have conducted with senior Muslim clerics and with
jailed Palestinian terrorists over the past several years, I found
tremendous support for the deep anti-Semitic beliefs Dr Mahathir
expressed. Such views are being spread throughout the Muslim world
by governments who call themselves friends and allies of the United
States.
They are being taught to children in Palestinian schools, whose
textbooks are filled with anti-Jewish hate. They are being preached
from the minarets of Cairo, Gaza, Jerusalem, Qatar and Riyadh. They
are being spread in America by front organizations that claim to
represent the Muslim "mainstream." And increasingly, they are
becoming accepted currency once again in a Europe that for two
generations has prided itself on putting the Holocaust behind
it.
I call them the "preachers of hate." The bad news is that they are
no longer confined to the fringes of the Muslim world. In many
important ways, they have become the Muslim mainstream, until
moderate Muslims speak out.
Consider for a moment the unending stream of hate speech and
incitation to violence coming from the state-controlled mosques of
the Middle East.
"The Jews are the Jews," Gaza prayer leader Dr. Ahmed Yusuf Abu
Halabiya told worshippers in a July 28, 2000 sermon that was
broadcast live on Palestinian Authority television. "There never
was among them a supporter of peace. They are all liars
They are
terrorists. Therefore it is necessary to slaughter them and murder
them, according to the words of Allah
Kill the Jews and those
Americans that are like them."
Or again, listen to how Yusuf al-Qaradawi ended this Nov. 1, 2002
sermon broadcast by state television in Qatar. "Oh God, destroy the
aggressor, treacherous Jews. O God, destroy the aggressor
Americans. O God, destroy the fanatic pagans. O God, destroy the
tyrannical Crusaders."
Al-Qaradawi is frequently represented in the U.S. as an Islamic
"moderate," and has addressed the annual conventions of the
American Muslim Council and other so-called Islamic organizations
in the United States that call terrorism "resistance," where he has
made equally incendiary remarks. But make no mistake: it is the
Jews, "a much smaller enemy," who have imposed "humiliation and
oppression" on Muslims everywhere, he insisted.
To Dr Mahathir way of thinking, 1.3 billion Muslims have been
systematically oppressed by 12 million Jews, spread across a
diaspora in more than 140 countries of the world. If Muslim
countries remain underdeveloped &endash; despite trillions of
dollars in oil revenues over the past thirty years &endash;
it's all because of the Jews. If their societies are unproductive,
their regimes autocratic, their young people dissatisfied and
yearning for change, it has nothing to do with their own actions.
It's the Jews!
Foreigners often call us naïve, because as Americans we are brought
up to revere the truth. Obvious falsehoods seem to us ... well,
obvious falsehoods. But this is not the case through much of the
Muslim world today, where governments and state-sponsored clerics
indoctrinate citizens to believe the most outrageous slanders about
Jews and about America, and to reject fact in favor of odious
conspiracies.
Jews are like the canary that miners take down into the pits, to
warn them when they are about to die. Jews get attacked first,
because the enemies of America can't attack Americans. But make no
mistake: we're next. It begins with the Jews, but it never ends
with the Jews.
Kenneth Timmerman author of the bestselling "Shakedown", is the
author of 'Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America',
released by Crown Forum in New York.
