Rich nations want to enslave Muslims: Mahathir
Rich nations want to enslave Muslims: Mahathir
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad opened a meeting of Islamic nations on Tuesday warning that rich countries plan to use technology and the Internet to turn Muslim countries into banana republics.
Mahathir used the opening ceremony of a four-day meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to urge Muslims to embrace modern science to defend themselves against what he called predatory Western companies.
He said Islamic nations risked being colonized by rich countries that have embraced science. Banks and industries in the rich industrialized nations were "ganging up", Mahathir added.
"In the end we will become like the banana republics where the managers of the plantations are more powerful than the presidents of these countries.
"At that stage, de facto we will no longer be independent. The situation which prevailed in the first half of the century will return," Mahathir said.
During Mahathir's 19-year rule, Malaysia has embarked on an ambitious modernization program, building the world's tallest building and promoting cutting-edge technology in the Multimedia Super Corridor, Malaysia's answer to Silicon Valley.
"Islam enjoins us to seek knowledge," he said. "Enough of us must be assigned to the acquisition of the necessary knowledge and skills of the Information Age so as to enable us to catch up with our detractors and enemies."
Mahathir said opposition Islamic conservatives in Malaysia had condemned the modernization program, and he decried those in the 56-member OIC who rejected modern science.
"I think that by failing to develop the Muslim countries, by failing to defend them and the Muslim people, we are committing even greater sins which our personal devotion to the daily rituals of our faith will not absolve us," he said.
Mahathir's exhortation to Muslims to embrace technology lent a thematic thread to the first day of the OIC meeting, which later this week will consider a resolution condemning the alleged use of technology by rich countries to dominate poor nations.
"We have in Malaysia the best example," said Oman's foreign minister, Yousuf Alawi Abdullah, who was speaking on behalf of Arab nations.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said: "He (Mahathir) reminds us we are capable of adopting the appropriate policies to help ourselves."
The 74-year-old Malaysian leader said that centuries ago Muslims had the world's most highly developed culture and knowledge of science, but they lost influence because they quarreled among themselves and shunned the industrial revolution.
"Clearly we are behind the rest of the world. Knowledge other than Islamic knowledge is condemned by many of us as secular and we are urged to reject them," he said, referring to Islamic fundamentalists in some countries.
Mahathir, who has spearheaded the Multimedia Super Corridor high-technology platform in Malaysia's capital, said in many cases the Internet clashed with Islamic values.
"It is also about muck and filth and unmitigated lies spread by people wishing to undermine the development of human society, including the Moslem people," he said, noting that half of all business transactions on the Internet involved pornography.
Mahathir took a swipe at unfettered capital flows that "almost bankrupted us, almost made us paupers and beggars, almost placed us under the direction of foreign powers whose agenda is not the same as ours and certainly is not Islamic".
OIC ministers will meet behind closed doors during the remaining three days to discuss resolutions including statements condemning Russia's policies towards Chechnya, Israel's stance at Mideast peace talks and India's position in Kashmir.
One of the more controversial resolutions, strongly opposed by Baghdad, denounces Iraq's "aggression" towards Kuwait.
Ministers will also seek a successor to OIC Secretary-General Azeddine Laraki of Morocco. The leading candidates were believed to be from Bangladesh and Turkey.