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OIC meet opens with urgings to unite against Jewish `control`
Putrajaya, Malaysia, Oct 16: The biggest summit of Islamic leaders in three years opened today with calls for the world`s 1.3 billion Muslims to unite against ``a few million Jews`` who allegedly rule the world by controlling the world`s major powers.
Putrajaya, Malaysia, Oct 16: The biggest summit of Islamic leaders in three years opened today with calls for the world's 1.3 billion Muslims to unite against ``a few million Jews'' who allegedly rule the world by controlling the world's major powers.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Muslims for years believed mistakenly that Islam rejected new technology and progress. He urged Muslims worldwide to ignore teachings by religious fundamentalists that scientific studies are somehow un-Islamic.
``We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our defense,'' Mahathir told leaders from 57 nations gathered for a summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. ``But because we are discouraged from learning of science and mathematics ... Today we have no capacity to produce our weapons for our defense,'' he said.
Malaysia, a moderate, mostly Muslim nation in Southeast Asia, has long been a longtime critic of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and of US policy in the Middle East, including its strong backing of the Jewish state.
Mahathir, chairman of the two-day summit, launched a blistering attack on what he described as Jewish domination of the world and Muslim nations' inability to adequately respond to it. ``The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy,'' Mahathir said. ``They get others to fight and die for them.''
Other leaders also attacked Israel, making its treatment of the Palestinians on the occupied territories a centerpiece of their speeches at the conference.
``The cause of the Palestinian people will remain our organization's major concern,'' Moroccan King Mohammed VI said. Bureau Report
``We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our defense,'' Mahathir told leaders from 57 nations gathered for a summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. ``But because we are discouraged from learning of science and mathematics ... Today we have no capacity to produce our weapons for our defense,'' he said.
Malaysia, a moderate, mostly Muslim nation in Southeast Asia, has long been a longtime critic of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and of US policy in the Middle East, including its strong backing of the Jewish state.
Mahathir, chairman of the two-day summit, launched a blistering attack on what he described as Jewish domination of the world and Muslim nations' inability to adequately respond to it. ``The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy,'' Mahathir said. ``They get others to fight and die for them.''
Other leaders also attacked Israel, making its treatment of the Palestinians on the occupied territories a centerpiece of their speeches at the conference.
``The cause of the Palestinian people will remain our organization's major concern,'' Moroccan King Mohammed VI said. Bureau Report