Mahathir asserts role as Islamic leader, warns west on terrorism

Mahathir asserts role as Islamic leader, warns west on terrorism

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad asserted his role as leader of an "Islamic state" on Thursday, and warned Muslim terrorism would not end until there was justice for the Palestinians.

In a two-hour address to the annual assembly of his United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the veteran Southeast Asian leader launched a double-barreled attack on both Islamic extremists and Western "panic" over terrorism.

"We are sure that the principal cause of the terrorism by Muslims is their anger against Israel, the seizure of Palestinian land by Western powers in order to create the state of Israel," he said.

"If terrorism is to be stopped then the injustice and the oppression of Israel against Palestine and its people must be stopped quickly first."

Mahathir, 76, said that faced with the unprecedented threat of terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States "the big powers appear to have panicked and lost their direction".

"Unused to handling attacks by terrorists they resorted to conventional warfare."

Afghanistan was attacked, although the September 11 terrorists were not Afghans, and many innocent people, including women and children were killed, he said.

"But terrorism has not been stopped. The big powers continue to live in a state of war because they believe that at any time the terrorists will attack again."

Defeating the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan had not been effective in the fight against terrorism, Mahathir said.

"Actually the possibility of terror attacks has increased because Israel, which oppresses Palestine, used the war against terrorism to upgrade its terror attacks against the Palestinians."

Mahathir also told his party's congress that Malaysia's constitution will not be changed to declare the country an Islamic state, saying it is already run on Muslim principles.

The statement could ease fears among this Southeast Asian nation's large non-Muslim minority -- mostly ethnic Chinese and Indians who follow Christianity, Buddhism or Hinduism -- that Mahathir wishes to impose an Islamic regime.

The issue is connected to Mahathir's efforts to compete with his party's main opponents, the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party, or PAS, for support among Malay Muslims, who comprise about 60 percent of the country's 23 million people.

"The debate on Malaysia as a Muslim country need not go on," Mahathir said. "There is no necessity to amend the constitution to make Malaysia a Muslim country."

The constitution, in effect since independence from Britain in 1957, enshrines Islam as the country's official religion but guarantees a secular government.

Mahathir's UMNO party has formed the core of every government since independence. Malaysia's politics are based largely on race, and UMNO rules with Chinese and Indian junior partners in a coalition.

The fundamentalists made large gains in elections in 1999, a year after Mahathir alienated many Malay Muslims by firing and jailing his popular deputy, Anwar Ibrahim.

Support for the fundamentalist PAS has ebbed since Sept. 11. Authorities have arrested scores of suspected Islamic extremists -- some of them PAS members -- for alleged involvement in groups plotting terror attacks and seeking to establish a hardline state in Muslim areas of Southeast Asia.