The antisemitic Prime Minister of Malaysia has just been invited to speak at Columbia University. Will his hatred be greeted there as enthusiastically as it was last June at the Cambridge University Union? From the Algemeiner:
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad — infamous for his antisemitic views across several decades — delivered an anti-Jewish barb that was greeted with laughter during an appearance at the Cambridge University Union in the UK on Sunday night.
The 93-year-old was responding to a respectfully-posed question from the event moderator who asked him, “Why do you say that the Jewish people in general are inclined towards money? There are lots of Jews who care about human rights, care about social justice, care about democracy.”
Mahathir answered: “I have some Jewish friends, very good friends. They are not like the other Jews, that’s why they are my friends.”
“Some of my best friends…” Of course, and that shows just how judicious Mahathir Mohamad is. He is capable of distinguishing the handful of good Jews — “good” because they are “not like other Jews” — who are his friends, from all the other Jews who, alas, act like Jews, and therefore are unworthy to be befriended, but should be mocked, despised, disliked, hated.
This comment was met with an appreciative peal of laughter that rippled across the audience. This was immediately followed by an awkward silence, during which Mahathir grinned at the moderator and then the audience.
That “appreciative peal of laughter” that “rippled across the audience” is nauseating. One wonders what would have been the reaction, had a speaker spoken of Muslims as disparagingly as Mohamad did about Jews. Of course not. There would have been dozens of outraged cries of “Islamophobia” and “racism.” That speaker would have been booed off the podium.
At no point was Mahathir challenged or reprimanded by the moderator. There were no audible protests from the audience.
Why would anyone challenge Mahathir Mohamad at the Cambridge Union? Antisemitism is back in fashion, especially at universities. Those BDS groups are now on hundreds of college campuses, in Europe and North America. Anti-Israel rallies and petitions, the disinviting or shutting down of pro-Israel speakers, the resolutions passed by student unions that call Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, an “apartheid state” — even though Arabs serve in the Knesset, on the Supreme Court, in the diplomatic corps, live and work and play alongside Israeli Jews — are repellent enough. But still worse is the naked antisemitism of so many of these anti-Israel agitators, who — just like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib — suffer no consequences for their views. And those antisemites were well represented in the audience, for who would be likeliest to come out to listen to Mahathir Mohamed spout his views? But there were surely many others, not antisemites, but too indifferent or cowed to offer a single syllable of protest to Mohamad’s zany laff-riot.
Mahathir’s long-held beliefs about Jewish domination of global politics and finance have become one of his defining characteristics as a world leader. Career highlights have included invoking the Nazi stereotype of Jews as “hooknosed” financiers, questioning the extent of the Holocaust during an interview with the BBC, and telling a Muslim solidarity conference with the Palestinians that the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC, “were staged…as an excuse to mount attacks against the Muslim world.”
Of course, It all makes sense to the likes of Mahathir Mohamad. But if Jews dominate global politics and finance, then how is it that they couldn’t manage to prevent the Holocaust? Why couldn’t they prevent Mahathir himself from being invited to address the Cambridge University Union or Columbia University? How is it that they haven’t been able to prevent Israel from being the object of more negative resolutions by the U.N. General Assembly than any other country? If Jews dominate global politics, why couldn’t they have annexed the entire West Bank long ago? Or gotten rid of the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad? Why couldn’t the Jews who “dominate global politics” stop Ayatollah Khomeini from taking power in Iran? Why couldn’t they long ago have pressured a hundred countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem? Some domination!
Among the student organizations condemning Mahathir’s appearance was the Labour Party’s student branch at Cambridge University. In a tweet, the Cambridge University Labour Club denounced the Malaysian leader as a “vicious antisemite” and declared its “solidarity with British Jews.”
That tweet denouncing Mohamad as a “vicious antisemite” was especially welcome, not just because of the no-nonsense description, but because it came from the Cambridge University Labour Club, which apparently has little use for Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. whose own antisemitism is well known.
And the Union of Jewish Students did not spare the Cambridge Union or Mahathir’s audience:
“As we warned would happen, the Malaysian prime minister used the prestigious platform of the Cambridge Union to spread his anti-Jewish racism.”
“It is chilling, particularly for any Jewish students in the room, to see a crowd of students laugh off flagrantly anti-Semitic comments used by Mahathir Mohamad.”
Those are two good things to have come out of the appearance by Mahathir Mohamad at Cambridge — almost certainly, the only good things. Will the situation be any different at Columbia?
mortimer says
What will wake up liberal-minded Jews to the great danger they will be in when Muslim percentage of population reaches 10% or 15% as in France.
A leader of France’s Jews recently said there would be no Jews in France within 10 years.
There’s more Jew hatred in Islam’s source texts than in Mein Kampf.
– The grand total of Jew Hatred in KORAN = 10,242 words / 152,006 total words = 6.7% Jew hatred
– Total number of Jew Hatred VERSES in Koran: 123 verses Jew hatred
– 17% of Medinan Koran is Jew hatred
– 1% of Meccan Koran is Jew hatred
– 8.9% of hadiths are Jew hatred
– 12% of Sira is Jew hatred
– 9.3% of Islamic Trilogy is Jew hatred
– 7% of Mein Kampf is Jew hatred by comparison
– Koran of Mecca filled with Jewish stories plagiarized and distorted.
– Jews of Medina did not validate Mohammed’s prophecy, so he then exterminated the Jews, stole their property and enslaved their women and children.
– Mohammed entered Jewish Yathrib with his people as refugees, then changed its name to Medina (‘capital city’), but within a few years there were no Jews left in Medina.
– Mohammed provides in Medina the perfect example of Jew hatred that Muslims must follow
Rob says
Some – many should have taken off their shoes and biffed them at him.
Brenrod says
I suppose if Cambridge University were bombed I would be expected to be sympathetic with the dead there?
jayell says
So I presume that this lot at Cambridge University would have had a good time at Herr Hitler’s Munich rallies – they’d have certainly found quite a few friends there.
carpediadem says
The sentiments expressed by Mahathir are exactly the same as those in the minds of many English antisemites, especially amongst the “upper” classes”.
It was Britain, after all, who though officially supporting the Jewish state in Mandate Palestine, betrayed the Jews at every turn, and still does.
revereridesagain says
Columbia U. had no qualms about inviting Ahmadinejad a few years back so no reason to expect that they would flinch at Mohamad. Since there was a moderator, I assume it was a Cambridge Union debate, so where was the opposing side? Good for the Labour and Union of Jewish Students for condemning it afterwards, but did anyone speak out during the event? Was it boycotted?
gravenimage says
Yes–I was going to mention that. Columbia President Le Bollinger “defended Mohamad speaking on campus while also calling the leader’s remarks ‘abhorrent’ and saying he was committed to ensuring Jewish students’ ‘safety and well-being.’
“Nevertheless, it is in these instances that we are most strongly resolved to insist that our campus remain an open forum and to protect the freedoms essential to our University community,” the university president wrote.
https://www.jta.org/2019/09/24/united-states/malaysias-prime-minister-who-said-he-is-proud-to-be-called-anti-semitic-is-speaking-at-columbia-university
We might take this more seriously if so many universities did not bar Anti-Jihadists from speaking.
gravenimage says
Lee Bollinger
Angemon says
Just you wait until Mossad steals your shoe!
Rarely says
“Antisemitism is back in fashion” ? I hate to let you in on a little secret Robert — it is never out of fashion. Sometimes it’s more in fashion than at other times but it is never very far from the surface. Given the slightest encouragement and it rears its ugly head instantly. The same is probably true for all racial prejudice but for some inexplicable reason antisemitism finds its way to the forefront with very little encouragement.
There are fewer than 15 million Jews on the planet yet somehow or other Jews are regularly blamed for whatever current ill is affecting the World.
I am waiting with baited breath to hear how climate change will be blamed on “the Jews”. If Mossad can train sharks to attack tourists on Egypt’s beaches climate change should be a breeze (pun intended). We certainly live in interesting times…stupid but interesting.
gravenimage says
Cambridge University Union: “Peal of Laughter” Greets Malaysian Prime Minister’s Antisemitism
……………………
Just disgusting–especially because Jews worldwide are very charitable; Muslims are anything but.
What else do we know about Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s antisemitism? He has has called Jews “hook-nosed,” said they “rule the world by proxy” and questioned the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. He has even said he is “glad to be labeled anti-Semitic.”
He has also said he was entitled to freedom of speech in order to speak “against the Jews.”
And so he is–but Cambridge and Columbia should not be giving him platforms to spew his antisemitism.
Rufolino says
Derisive laughter from educated people (not shouts and screams), could be exactly what this despicable idiot deserved.
infidel says
This vile old coot is a sick closet jehaadi.
Giacomo Latta says
”Among the student organizations condemning Mahathir’s appearance was Labour Party’s student branch”
Is this a typo that should read Conservative Party or is this group too isolated from Labour Party central to know who is running its party and what type of scum he is?
gravenimage says
If the Labour Party is protesting this, I am glad to see it.