The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned a sermon delivered at mosques in Malaysia that said Jews "are the main enemy of Muslims as proven by their egotistical behavior and murders performed by them."
The Jewish group based in Los Angeles said the oration prepared by the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (JAWI) and distributed in and around the capital of Kuala Lumpur put the few Jews living in the country and those visiting in danger.
“This sermon...makes a mockery of Malaysia’s Constitution which promises that religions other than Islam may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in a press release.
Since its establishment in 1957, Malaysia has rejected formal diplomatic relations with Israel and has kept contacts on a low flame at best. Reasons include Malaysia‘s desire to cultivate ties with the Arab countries and the power of domestic Islamic trends. Malaysian animus toward Israel grew during the 1960s, although a certain level of commercial activity between the two countries was tolerated. In 1981 the openly anti-Semitic Dato Mahathir bin Muhamad was elected Malaysia‘s prime minister, and he continued his public condemnations of Israel and Jews while strengthening Malaysia‘s support for the PLO. Although during the Oslo era he somewhat moderated his statements, he ended his tenure in October 2003 with an anti-Semitic diatribe at a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Since then Malaysia has remained cool toward Israel, claiming that relations depend on a solution of the Palestinian problem.
During Mahathir Mohamed’s years as prime minister he made extreme anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic statements, some of which achieved wide resonance. Mahathir nurtured anti-Semitism in a Malaysia that was without Jews. On 27 January 1981, in a speech in Saudi Arabia, he urged regaining the Palestinian lands by force since Israel was not invincible. He also, as will be discussed, vilified Israel at major venues.
In June 1983, Mahathir issued a statement attacking Israel for its incursion into Lebanon and calling it “the most immoral country in the world.” In October 1983, at the OIC’s Sixth Conference on Palestine held in New York, Malaysia expressed concern about Israel’s renewed activities in Africa and called for their immediate halt. Malaysia opposed establishing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and supported the resolution at the Jerusalem Conference of the OIC (New York, April 1984) to sever ties with any country that moved its ambassador to Jerusalem.
Malaysia supported the PLO more strongly than did any other Southeast Asian country. In 1969, Malaysia was the first Asian country to permit Fatah to open an office in its capital, which in 1974 became a PLO office. In August 1982, under Mahathir, this office was given full diplomatic recognition. Malaysia’s foreign minister claimed that Israel should recognize the PLO before demanding that it recognize Israel. In May 1983, Malaysia hosted a conference on the Palestine question with UN funding and expressed anti-Israeli propaganda in its media. Yasser Arafat, paying an official visit to Malaysia in July 1984, was received by the king and spoke to a large audience.14
In August 1984, a visit to Kuala Lumpur by the New York Philharmonic was canceled because of the Malaysian information minister’s demand that a work by the Swiss Jewish composer Ernst Bloch be removed from the program. The minister’s statement on the matter included anti-Semitic expressions.
From 1983 onward, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was published and disseminated in Malaysia. On 12 August 1983, Mahathir asserted in a speech to the Malaysian Press Club that Jews and Zionists controlled the international media. He repeated this charge four days later and added that the journalists working for foreign newspapers under Jewish control were trying to destabilize Malaysia through distorted reports. He called the Wall Street Journal a Jewish tool.
In a speech in September 1986 at the summit of the Nonaligned Nations in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, Mahathir complained that the Jews’ exile two thousand years ago and their persecution under the Nazis had not taught them anything. On the contrary, these persecutions had turned them into the very monsters they vilified in their own propaganda; they had become the gifted students of Goebbels.
In another speech to the Malaysian parliament on 10 October 1986, Mahathir referred to attempts by Zionists to use Malaysian individuals and groups to damage the country’s economy. He also blamed the “Zionist press” in Western countries for the low level of American investment in Malaysia. He often attacked the New York Times and the Asian Wall Street Journal as Zionist publications.15
Israeli president Chaim Herzog’s visit to Singapore in November 1986 evoked harsh Malaysian reactions including bitter condemnations of Israel and Zionism. There were calls to cut off Singapore’s water supply and burn its flag.16
Mahathir and Malaysian diplomatic representatives made constant belligerent speeches about Israel, often condemning it for causing suffering to the Palestinians. In 1992, Malaysia denied entry to a delegate from Israel’s El Al airlines for the International Flight Conference in Kuala Lumpur. In December that year, it denied entry to an Israeli football player on the Liverpool team, and the team canceled its visit to Malaysia.
In March 1994, Mahathir prohibited the screening of Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s List on the ground that it was an anti-German propaganda film aimed at winning support for Jews and contained too much violence. When this evoked protests in the United States and Australia, the Malaysia cabinet canceled the prohibition against the film but required that seven scenes with violence or sex be cut. Spielberg, however, insisted that the film be shown in its entirety or not at all. In the end, it was decided to remove all his films from Malaysia.17
Early in 1992, Israel began normalizing its relations with China, India, and other Asian countries. This drew its Foreign Ministry’s attention to the Muslim countries in Asia. The view regarding Malaysia was that Mahathir was an anti-Semite and there was no chance of changing his country’s hostile policy so long as he was prime minister.
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