GOBBY BLOKE!
Gus Spank rants again!
Let the mouthing come to Mohammed!
Dateline October....
Controversial shock-jock and sometime leader of Malaysia, Mohammed Mahathir
dipped his elbow into a bathful of steaming controversy with his latest
speech given at the October Islamic Organisation's conference. Screaming,
"It's the Jews! They're taking over the world!" He was carted off-stage to
rapturous applause from the conference delegates. Well I exaggerate *just* a
little bit!
If you look past the immediate outrage generated from this end-comment, he
said quite a lot of other things beforehand, that were of great interest,
but largely ignored in the western media coverage.
In fact, most of his speech was searchingly critical of the way in which
Moslems dealt with the modern world, or rather, the way in which they didn't
in a lot of cases. He went so far as to suggest that not all parts of
western civilisation were automatically 'bad', and that useful lessons could
be learned from there. He even went as far to condemn forms of violence such
as suicide bombing, and suggest that conflicts between the Moslems and other
groups were better resolved using "brain rather than brawn". He also
appealed to the wider Moslem community to unify, as with their 1.3 billion
members, everything positive would be possible. I'm not sure if the words
"Moslem Renaissance" were used here, but they might as well have been.
Unfortunately, this considered and constructive criticism fell on a silent
and unappreciative audience. These seemed to be uneasy at listening to one
of their own people challenge several long-held attitudes and beliefs. They
seemed to be quite happy to condone easy fanaticism and suicide bombing as
part of a "liberation" struggle, thank you very much. Now don't forget, this
was a global conference with its delegates presumably being Islamic opinion
formers and shapers for their own local communities all over the world. Now
this is very worrying.
Even more worrying is the fact that the same audience only responded
positively to Mahathir's punchline about those pesky cunning, behind-the-
scenes string pulling Jews! The fact that I'm writing this piece is proof of
their influence of course! Mahathir said the outrage generated in Western
Media was 'proof' of such string-pulling on these myriad Jewish-owned media
outlets.
Those comments about the Jews could also be seen as a back-handed (or
possibly cack-handed) compliment to them. Even though their numbers were
reduced by 6 million, they're still up there ruling the world, getting
others to do their fighting for them, according to him. At least it can be
said that Mahathir has the good sense to avoid being seen as a holocaust-
denier by acknowledging the death toll. Holocaust-denial is a depressingly
common hobby in the middle east.
So why did Mohamed Mahathir spoil a perfectly good speech, with a throwaway
comment about those roach-like Jews, top-dogging away in secrecy?
1. The man is a genuine Jew-baiter? Unlikely, as I don't recall Malaysia as
a hotbed of anti-semitism historically. Previous speeches have shown a
scattergun distain for the West and Western values in general, without
targeting people with curly beards and wire-rimmed spectacles. A speech in
June accused 'Europeans', meaning Anglo-Americans in this case, of wanting
to conquer the world and impose a global culture through freedom of sexual
expression (Sodomy, in other words..)
2. He really did get misinterpreted and taken out of context by the West?
Possible, but he did talk of "fighting the Jews, but using brains rather
than brawn." I think the hostile reception that followed from the rest of
the world, was entirely understandable.
(What did he mean "Fight the Jews using brains rather than Brawn" anyway?? -
Was it through mentally agile Moslems outwitting their Jewish opponents in
a "Winner takes all' game of chess for the future of Palestine? Or is he
suggesting something more sinister like genetically engineered smart bio-
weapons?!)
3. His speech as originally given, criticising the current contribution of
Moslem societies to the world, was going so badly, that he had to resort to
a cheap stunt at the last minute, to get the approval of his fellow
delegates? Possible, but not probable. See below.
4. Mahathir thought he was speaking to his target audience, an elite of
fellow Moslems, with a reasonable and consistent message. In doing so, he
revealed a very poor, almost bricklike sensitivity towards the sensibilities
of many non-moslem people. He also showed almost no understanding of the
context of historical and current anti-semitism.. In short, he displayed an
unthinking "I know best" kind of arrogance, which he frequently accuses
others of.
This speech seems to echo a general middle eastern style malaise of getting
to grips with a wider reality, rather than convenient blame-making in the
direction of a particular group, especially the Jews in Israel. I doubt it
will change any of the hardened attitudes to a more intelligent and
constructively self-critical approach. If he wanted to really reshape minds,
and plant the seed for a 21st century Moslem enlightment, then he fumbled
the opportunity by taking easy pot-shots at the favourite whipping-boy
ethnic group.
In short, a truly wise person would have chosen their words far more
carefully. maybe the Malaysians should bring a race relations act into law,
or consider importing some more cattle-prods to quieten their ex-prime
ministers with a flapping gob?!
Gus Spank in 2003
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