Comments by David G. Littman – NGO Representative of the Association for World Education (AWE) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to the United Nations in Geneva:
Robert Spencer’s “Islamic Nazis” is a very welcome reminder of what’s on the horizon for us all.
In his recent idiocies at a ceremony held for a book titled Civilizations, Nomadic Migrations, Empires and The Trail of Islam at the Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur, former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Muhammad seriously referred to the 9/11 Jihadist horror jokingly, with the following comments :
“The way the tower came crashing down was also funny (…) I have great respect for the Arabs but for them to hijack four planes is not very Arab. Just imagine the amount of planning that would be involved.” Rejecting any claims that he was being insensitive to the victims, Mahathir stressed that he was “being more sensitive to the victims” as he was simply saying the attacks were carried out “deliberately.” He also said that his views about how 9/11/2001 attacks were carried out would not affect Malaysia’s chances of attracting foreign investment. “I have said this many times even when I was the prime minister. But we still have the foreign direct investment. However, we cannot rely on foreign direct investments alone. We must build on our own system,” he said.
On several occasions I have denounced, at the UNCHR, the crass lunacies of Mahathir bin Muhammad – but no condemnation emanated from the ‘international community’s conscience of the world’. Below is an extract from WUPJ’s Appeal to Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, which I drafted 6½ years ago, having raised the matter earlier in an oral statement at the UN Commission on Human Rights. Rabbi François Garaï and I signed it and The National Review reprinted it in Oct. 21, 2003.
URGENT APPEAL
To Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan Â
on Prime Minister Mahathir bin Muhammad’s Madding Judeophobia(…) In fact, Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad was simply true to form. Already in October 1986, a day after PLO-dissident Abu Nidal’s killers massacred 23 Jews at worship in Istanbul’s “Gates of Peace” synagogue (Neve Shalom), he told the 101-Member Movement of the Non-Aligned countries (Harare, Zimbabwe): “The expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land some two thousand years ago and the Nazi oppression have taught them nothing. If at all, it has transformed the Jews into the very monsters that they condemn so roundly in their propaganda material. They are apt pupils of Dr Goebbels.” (New York Times / IHT – October 8, 1986).
On that occasion also, not one ‘Non-Aligned’ delegation reacted. Two months later Malaysia inaugurated an “Anti-Jews Day” (New York Times, Dec. 8, 1986), and during his State visit to Great Britain in July 1987 he again affirmed: “The Jews have been apt pupils of Dr. Goebbels.” In March 1994 Schindler’s List was banned in Malaysia – on the grounds that it was “Jewish propaganda.” In 1997 he blamed the Asian financial crisis on the “Jews,” explaining his views: “We are Muslims, and the Jews are not happy to see Muslims progress.”