This & That, Ceci et Cela

Apparently depends on who is reporting and what the subject matter is. Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s speech at a Muslim summit incited controversy due to remarks about Jews. Based on the BBC report, it appeared that he was rallying Muslims use their brains and brawn to fight Jews because “they rule the world by proxy”,etc. My immediate reaction had been to ask: I thought he was supposedly a smart man! Has he always spewed such crap in public?

Then a non-muslim resident expat in Malaysia replied:
I listened to the entire speech and I did not come away with this. I guess the people writing this are in the west anyway. what I came away with was that hate crimes have been happening in Muslim countries for almost half a century and where did it get them? Nowhere. He said they have made Islam a backward religion and he is challenging them to use their brains in mapping out strategies to develop their countries economically and technologically. He also pointed out that if they were at par with the west especially with weapons of warfare and could stand on their two feet, then a western or more developed region will not just get up one day and bomb their wives and kids. He used the Jews as examples of people who were almost wiped out of the earth but using their brains they have become very powerful to the point that they are now oppressors instead of the oppressed. He dissed those Muslims who were overly focused on minor things of Islam like code of dressing, etc. Told them to wise up and start to move forward instead of backward and start to build their cities and enlighten their people in science, maths etc. In short he was urging them to develop themselves not fight with anybody. Well this is life. Everyone probably heard what they wanted to hear.

Well, I guess it does shows the strength of propaganda because I wasn’t there, so I didn’t hear the actual speech. The BBC report was the first I heard of the meeting. Normally, I wouldn’t have jumped to conclusions but I because I usually expect on BBC to give me UNbiased news, I didn’t distrust the report. Next time, I will remember to ask/look for the unabridged transcript before drawing any conclusions! A reminder that no news source can relied on 100% for all topics… Rate of reliance obviously depends on subject matter.