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Muslims Urged not to Resort to Terrorism
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Friday appealed to Muslims not to resort to terrorism, saying this is just not the Muslim way.
Mahathir said resorting to terrorism would only bring more misfortunes for Muslims themselves.
"I would like to state that terrorism is not the Muslim way. Despite the injustice of the treatment against us we must not resort to terrorism," he told participants of the Second Conference of Tourism Ministers of Islamic countries.
Mahathir said as a result of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, Muslims were finding life in Western countries and travelling there very difficult.
He said because of this, Muslims should not expose themselves to this difficulty and instead could go to countries that did not discriminate against them.
"It seems that being a Muslim these days can be a constant cause of distress. With recent events every Muslim is suspected of being a potential terrorist," he said.
"Anyone with a Muslim name, especially if it includes "bin" (which means son of) will be interrogated and searched at airports as a suspect terrorist," said the prime minister.
Mahathir, who was among the first world leaders to condemn the September 11 attacks but disagreed with the ongoing U.S. air strikes against Afghanistan, said it was grossly unfair to treat every Muslim as a terrorist who must be interrogated and searched.
He urged all Muslims to instead try to develop their countries and equip themselves with all the knowledge, skills and capacities to enable them to protect themselves independently of others.
The prime minister believed that when Muslims were strong, the tendency to bully them would cease.
"It may take a long time, a century even to do this. But we as Muslims must be patient. We were great before. There is no reason we cannot become great again," he said.
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