In her Thursday column, Mariam Sobh claimed that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's comments about Jews (which were applauded by the members of the conference) were taken out of context, and should not be considered anti-Semitic. I am going to present, without comment, excerpts from the speech that I hope you will print, and let your readers decide for themselves.

Excerpts from Prime Minister Mohamad's speech:

"There is a feeling of hopelessness among the Muslim countries and their people. They feel that they can do nothing right. They believe that things can only get worse. The Muslims will forever be oppressed and dominated by the Europeans and the Jews. They will forever be poor, backward and weak. Some believe, as I have said, this is the Will of Allah, that the proper state of the Muslims is to be poor and oppressed in this world.

"It cannot be that there is no other way. 1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way.

"We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."