U.S. visa plans unfair to Muslims: Malaysia

U.S. visa plans unfair to Muslims: Malaysia

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

New United States visa restrictions on Muslim men from 25 countries will undermine Washington's claim that Islam is not the enemy in the war on terrorism, Malaysia warned on Monday.

The international coalition against terror could be weakened, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told an official news conference called to protest the move, which targets Muslim men aged 16 to 45.

The new rules would "serve to reinforce the perception among a significant section of the international community including the Muslim community that the U.S. singles out Muslims in its war against terrorism, the minister said.

"This perception should be avoided in the collective efforts toward building an international coalition and consensus against terrorism," he added.

"It will in fact aggravate the situation. Muslim countries will feel alienated and Muslims will feel alienated because terrorists are not only Muslims. There are terrorists all over the world," Syed said.

Malaysia's government and opposition showed rare unity in criticizing U.S. plans to slow down visa application procedures from more than 20 countries, including Malaysia, where Islam is a primary religion.

Announced by the State Department last week, the new rules aim to give officials time to screen applicants from that group for evidence of past terrorist activities. The process is expected to be lengthened by bout 20 days.

"If it is true, it is discriminatory," Syed said, adding the government was trying to confirm news reports about the plan with the U.S. Embassy.

"We feel surprised and we feel in some way offended. This is not going to help in getting rid of the impression that this is Muslims against America or the West against Muslims," Syed said.

Muslim-majority Malaysia condemned the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S., which led to the visa curbs, but criticizes the retaliatory bombing of Afghanistan, saying it kills innocent people.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in a low-key initial reaction at the weekend the regulations, imposed on Friday, suggested that the U.S. was shifting its focus increasingly to Muslims and Muslim countries.

"This is disheartening as we know that presently there are also terrorists among non-Muslims," he said, referring to the Oklahoma City bombing by American Timothy McVeigh in 1995.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi called the assumption that young Muslim males could be terrorists "wild and arbitrary", and also suggested the visa curbs would hurt the U.S. campaign to convince the world that it was fighting terrorism and not Islam.

"The possibility of they being terrorists is a random assumption ... a wild one," Abdullah was quoted as saying late on Sunday by the Bernama national news agency.

Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak said Malaysia should not have been included in the list of 25 countries as it had "continuously campaigned against terrorism acts by various groups."

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the ethnic Chinese-based opposition Democratic Action Party, said the new rules "can only strengthen international opinion that the U.S. is conducting a war between the West and Islam" following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Countries affected by the new rules are Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.