This is precisely the sort of meaningless, taqiyya-laced press release that Muslim-led governments like Malaysia’s are notorious for. “Najib’s call to stand united against extremism gains support”, from The Star Online, 21 June:
CYBERJAYA: African nations have expressed interest and responded positively to the global movement of moderates.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said he had taken the opportunity to explain the concept to the heads of governments during the Leaders Retreat at the Langkawi International Dialogue.
“The leaders are interested in the idea and there is positive response in support of the [moderation] concept,” he told reporters after chairing the retreat yesterday.
Najib had in his address to the United Nations General Assembly last year called for the global movement of moderates that would see governments, intellectuals, religious scholars and business leaders across the world take a united stand against extremism.
The Prime Minister said that during the discussion, Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete had shared his country’s experience in which the government was in the midst of identifying moderates to solve the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes in Burundi.
Exactly what this swell ‘moderation concept’ is supposed to all about is not disclosed in the article. And don’t bother looking, either. Remember that articles in the Malaysian media are generally uncritical of and rather faithful to their government masters (and Islam is naturally blameless and beyond reproach). Which means that they’re quite good at passing along their government’s lies and taqiyya with a more-or-less straight face.
Neither does Najib bother to explain what ‘extremism’ is either. Naturally, it goes without saying that Islam is never to be considered as ‘extremist’ or to be associated in any way with ‘extremism’. Of course; this would be Islamophobic and probably racist as well.
Prime Minister Najib, would supporting a bunch of homical-minded Jew-hating terrorists in the Middle East be considered ‘extreme’? Would throwing Malaysians who stop believing in Islam — a.k.a. ‘apostates’ — into Government built and funded prisons where they are assaulted and tortured by police be ‘extreme’? Would those Malaysians who carry out and enforce a legal system — a.k.a. Shariah — that denotes women and non Muslims as inferior be deemed ‘extremists’?
Malaysia’s Najib may be able to fool a bunch of African leaders that he can ‘identify moderates and extremists’ with his (at best) questionable ‘moderation concept’. But if Najib wants to see a real extremist, all he really has to do is look in the mirror.