|
Malaysia silent on Muslim Dire Revenge (TM)
The ire that has swept through the Muslim world since Buddhist Thailand's crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in its underdeveloped southern region last month is understandable given the circumstances: 78 Muslims in Tak Bai district suffocated to death when 1,300 protesters were stuffed into police trucks for more than six hours. In neighboring Malaysia, condemnation has been more vocal than elsewhere. The atavistic Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) called the incident "a Holocaust of the modern era", while former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad compared the region's unrest to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and urged Thailand to grant autonomy to Thai Muslims. A popular state-controlled daily said the Thai government now "surpasses Israel's record of aggression" against Muslims. In some ways such censure comes with the territory. Malaysia's Muslims, like Thailand's, are of Malay ethnicity. And Malaysia is Thailand's closest majority-Muslim neighbor. But it also suggests that Malaysia has a long way to go to fulfill its self-proclaimed tag line as an exemplary progressive Islamic nation.Posted by: tipper 2004-11-12 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=48567 |