The OIC, the Organization of Islamic Countries, is starting its meeting in Malaysia this week under a cloud. Instead of being a dynamic world body, it is in danger of becoming an ineffective and dysfunctional organization.

Take, first of all, the fact that the OIC conference in Malaysia is their first meeting since 9/11. Therefore the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, civil liberties violations against Muslims, and the continuing expansion of neo-Empire have gone unopposed by this body.

On top of this comes the unbelievable news that the OIC is seriously considering Bangladesh’s nomination of Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury as Secretary-General. An alleged war criminal who has been accused of assisting the Pakistan army’s genocidal actions during Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war, Chowdhury is a symbol of rehabilitation of war criminals in South Asia. To now appoint this man Secretary-General of the OIC would reduce the organization to a global laughing stock.

As the OIC began its meeting this week, Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohammed grabbed headlines and dragged the organization further into the mud. Sounding like a fresh convert to propaganda tracts like “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” Mohammed let loose an onslaught of anti-Semitic polemic at the opening ceremonies of the OIC. In his fiery speech, he told leaders of the Islamic world that 1.3 billion Muslims could not be “defeated by a few million Jews” who “rule the world by proxy.” For good measure he then added, “This tiny [Jewish] community has become a world power. We cannot fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains as well.”

This is not Mahathir’s first flirtation with anti-Semitic invective. In 1970, he resurrected Shakespeare’s “hook-nosed Jew” in The Malay Dilemma, and said that “the Jews for example are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.” In 1997, when speculators drove down the value of the Malaysian currency, an angry Mahathir said, “We are Muslims and the Jews are not happy to see Muslims’ progress. We may suspect that they have an agenda but we do not want to accuse them.”

Mahathir’s sentiments are hardly unique in the world. Shakespeare’s heavy-handed caricatures in Merchant Of Venice, “Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnal”; Act II, Sc 2, drew inspiration from the prevailing anti-Semitic sentiments of his time. As recently as this week, Gregg Easterbrook, Senior Editor of The New Republic, was taken to task for his attack on the ultra-violent film Kill Bill. In his review, Easterbrook wrote, “Disney’s CEO Michael Eisner is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish,” and then he went on to criticize them because although “Christian and other Hollywood executives...worship money...Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence?”

Clearly anti-Semitic sentiments are not limited to Muslim nations. In fact, through modern history, most of the violence and pogroms against the Jewish community were carried out by European nations. Infamously, the Vatican and the US Senate turned a blind eye to the Holocaust during World War II. One of the few times when Jews were treated most humanely by a majority population was during the period of Muslim expansion into new countries.

But, in spite of this history, in today’s geopolitical cauldron Muslim anti-Semitism will always grab bigger headlines and do more damage to Muslims than any other community’s hate-speech.

Of course, criticizing the Israeli government is not the same as anti-Semitism. When Mahathir condemns Israeli aggression against Palestinians and neighboring countries, he repeats a critique that many progressive Jewish commentators will agree with, upon recalling that some of the strongest critiques of Ariel Sharon’s “Apartheid Wall” come from the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. But by expanding that critique to include the entire Jewish community, and to talk about “the Jewish race” and their “tendencies,” Mahathir has crossed over into anti-semitism. Moreover, his comments come at a fragile time for the Muslim ummah. Liberal Muslims are trying to push their countries to embrace human rights in places like Iran and Nigeria. Others are trying to stem the tide of converts to fanatical organizations preaching violence and the murder of civilians. In a time like this, Mahathir’s ill-thought comments will only enflame radical Muslims further and strengthen the hand of the right-wing elements within political Islam.

Mahathir’s sentiments are a perfect example of why the OIC has been completely irrelevant in performing its stated goal: to improve the condition of the worldwide Muslim community.

By making simple-minded comments that shift blame for the Muslim world’s ills, Mahathir backtracks on his otherwise good strategy of confronting the problems of the Muslim world and concentrating on what we can change within, rather than complaining about “outside forces” we have no control over. Indeed, even when the OIC can agree on some sort of “action,” it is usually in the form of a joint statement that is immediately tossed into the diplomacy dustbin.

The trouble with Mahathir in particular is that he had the chance to be remembered as a visionary leader — someone who brought his country to prosperity and spoke boldly on behalf of the Global South. Instead, he will be remembered for stupid acts like jailing his Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges and making blanket statements against “the Jews.”

Next week, Mahathir will retire as Malaysia’s Prime Minister after 22 years in office.

What a shameful swan song for a man who had the potential to unite, not divide.

–Naeem Mohaiemen
OC ’93
Editor of Shobak.org
Associate Editor of AltMuslim.com

Point-Counterpoint is a column for the Oberlin community to debate the pressing issues of today. A Counterpoint will be printed in next week’s issue of the Review. Please send your submissions or ideas to commentary@oberlinreview.org