Get nukes, ditch the dollar
HAQ NAWAZ
ISLAMABAD-The Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Bin Mohammad has made it clear that Muslim countries also have the right to possess nuclear weapons as Israel.
“If you (the world powers) allowed Israel to have nuclear weapons then why can’t the other Middle Eastern Muslim states get the nuclear weapons too,” the veteran Muslim leader said while responding to a Western questioner during an hour-long question-answer session here at a seminar.
The seminar ‘Clash of Civilizations or Clash of Interests’, was organized by Pakistan Tehreeki-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan here on Friday at a local hotel. PML-N Chairman Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, PML-Q leader and former foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan and Farooq Amjad Mir MNA also attended the seminar.
The seminar was attended by politicians, intellectuals, defence analysts, religious scholars, academicians, political workers and students. Roughly, over two hundred patiently listened to the views of the great Muslim living legend Dr Mahathir while standing in the hall for more than two hours, besides 600 seated people.
“Yes, I am against the nuclear weapons but if the US and UK led West is sincere in cleaning the world from the nuclear weapons then they should start first from US, UK,” he argued. “Everyone should abandon the weapons of mass destruction and this should not be restricted only to the Muslims,” he insisted.
He termed the clash of civilizations as clash of interests and the very bases of all the disputes are politically motivated. He said that the US and its Western allies are looking for control of resources of the Muslim world and they have no religious agenda.
He called upon the Muslim countries to openly announce boycotting the US currency and use other currencies to give a strong message. He urged the Muslims to make the sole superpower weaker by devaluing its currency, as it did with others including Malaysia in late 90’s, “we stopped using dollars, replacing it with other currency, we should delink our economies with US dolldar,” he said.
He also questioned the so-called war on terror after the 9/11 terror attacks and did not dismiss the conspiracy theory behind the attacks. “When you watch the videos of so-called terror attacks of 9/11 minutely, you will note that the twin towers collapsed smoothly creating doubts of the US claims,” Mahathir pointed out.
“The videos clearly show the collapsing of three towers and not the two, as planned destruction of the buildings purposely through explosives, used usually to destroy buildings,” he observed, adding that whether the theory is true or not but I can’t dismiss it.
He dispelled the impression created by Western media for trying to establish a link between terrorism and Islam. “There is no link between the two but unfortunately the attackers, who tried to be heard at international level, are the suppressed Muslims from Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya and Afghanistan,” he maintained.
On the issue of differentiating between freedom fighters and terrorists, the veteran Muslim leader explained, “Those fighting against the occupying forces are called terrorists today but when they free themselves from the occupations then they would be respected as the African legend leader Nelson Mandela.”
About the unity of Muslims, he strongly advocated to go back to the origin and consult the true teachings of Islam. “There is a proverb in Malai that when you lost the way go back to the beginning,” he said. Dr Mahathir asserted that the Muslims should first end their infighting over minor issues and concentrate more on spending on education, science, technology and research.
To a question he backed a political system that suited the country. “If Hamas is elected through the democratic way then they are not ready to accept that democracy,” he noted.
He was also critical of the comments of Pope about Islam and reminded him to look into the past history of Islam. “The Christians and Jews were set free to carry out not only their religious rituals but also preaching when the Muslim were in power in Spain and Africa. Both the religions flourished during the Muslim reign,” he recalled.
Regarding the dictatorship and authoritarian rules, Dr Mahathir said, “When you have unlimited powers then ultimately the powers are abused by dictators.”
Earlier, speaking on the occasion PTI Chairman Imran Khan said that the root causes of suicide attacks should be looked into by the world.
He said after communism the West presumed Islam as a major threat to them, therefore after 9/11 the likeminded stakeholders jumped into the bandwagon of war on terror including Russia, India, Israel, UK. “The most disappointing ones are the leaders of the Muslim world, who also joined the camp of fighting the so-called terrorism,” Imran added.
“The Muslim rulers mostly monarchs and dictators wanted to legitimize their illegal rule by getting support from Washington. The Muslim intelligentsia also started following the Western language, calling the just freedom fighters as extremists and terrorists. The Muslim dictators have become moderate overnight to save their skin,” said Imran.
Imran said,” Suicide phenomenon was already there in the world, 70 percent of Tamils used suicide for their cause even before 9/11 but no one is calling them terrorists nor the Hinduism is charged with terrorism. Thousands of Muslims have been butchered in India.”
He asked the Muslim rulers to part ways with the US war on terror because it gives fillip to the sentiments of hatred. “If the US guided West continues with its policy of occupation then there will be more radicalism. The issue of terror will finally be resolved politically,” he added.
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