In a recapitulation of the dubious accomplishments of the now ex-prime minister of Malaysia, the notorious Mahathir Mohamad, the New York Times lets it slip (in a quotation from “Jomo K. Sundram, a critic of Dr. Mahathir and a professor of applied economics at the University of Malaysia”): “Anti-Semitism is the kind of thing you do to establish your ostensible Islamic credentials. Mahathir does this because his Islamic credentials are so weak, and because he spends so much time attacking the ulamas. He was saying, `In case you think I’m anti-Muslim, here is some anti-Semitism.’ ”
Um, I thought the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned Mahathir’s anti-Semitism. Didn’t Amir Taheri explain to us that Mahathir was just a politician with foot-in-mouth disease, and that his views revealed nothing about what Muslims really think? And now Mahathir is a populist, proving his Islam by being anti-Semitic?
And if anti-Semitism is really “the kind of thing you do to establish your ostensible Islamic credentials,” then the Religion of Peace is long past due for a serious and thoroughgoing reform.