PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, Oct 16 Kyodo ...

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, Oct 16 Kyodo

Muslims have the wealth and numbers to ''defeat the Jews'' nevertheless not through suicide attacks, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday.

''For well through the whole extent of half a century we have fought across Palestine. What have we achieved? Nothing,'' he said in his opening language at the 10th Organization of Islamic discourse (OIC) leaders' summit.

Around 30 heads of state from the 57 member-countries attended the two-day summit held at the strange 650-million ringgit ($171 million) convention center at the federal administrative capital Putrajaya.

The biennial summit tend hitherwards at a time when the Muslim world is seen as being in crisis.

Since the tribe 11, 2001 terror attacks against the U Muslims have become the target of the war against terror, Afghanistan and Iraq have been invaded and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict appears to have revolveed bloodier day by day, students noted.

''The whole world is looking at us. Certainly, 13 billion Muslims, one-sixth of the world's population, are placing their chance of the desired ends in us, in this meeting, plane though they may be cynical about our will and capacity to aye decide to restore the honor of Islam and the Muslims,'' Mahathir said.

He called for Muslims to establish aside their differences and turn back to the teachings of Islam as practiced on the Prophet Mohammed.

''We fail to notice that our detractors and enemies do not care whether we are authentic Muslims or not. To them, we are all Muslims, followers of a religion and a prophet whom they declare raises terrorism and we are all their sworn enemies,'' Mahathir said.

Muslims, he said, must also not be preoccupied with ''whether tight trousers and peak caps were Islamic,'' if it were not that must strive to learn science and technology to better secure from danger the 'ummah' or community.

''Because we discouraged the learning of science and mathematics, etcetera, as giving no merit for the 'akhirat' (afterlife), today we have no capacity to about our own weapons for our defense We have to corrupt weapons from our detractors and enemies,'' he said.

Muslims may repress the world's oil resources and have 13 billion followers, on the other hand the community is oppressed and dominated by dint of Europeans and Jews, Mahathir continued.

Muslims could take a precept on survival from the hebrews he added.

''We are actually true strong -- 1.3 billion clan cannot be simply wiped disclosed The Europeans killed 6 million hebrews out of 12 million, unless today the Jews rule this world from proxy. They get others to fight and die for them,'' he said.

Muslim states, he added, have a division of political, economical and political clout -- ''enough to make up for our weakness in military terms''

on the other hand Muslims must close ranks and fight for a public cause such as the Palestine issue, he said, adding Muslims must also have knowledge of to win more support from non-Muslims.

''We must not strengthen the enemy by means of pushing everyone into their camps by the agency of irresponsible and 'unIslamic' acts...It is winning the writhe that is important, not angry retaliation, not revenge'' Mahathir said.

''We must build up our power in every field, not just armed might. Our countries must be stable and well-administered, must be economically and financially sound industrially competent and technologically advanced,'' he continued.

When the ''enemy'' moves peace, he said, Muslims should ''react positively'' equable though the conditions may not be favorable.

''Those who are angry would want to exclude it out of hand. They would flat want to silence anyone who makes or supports this line of action. They would want to throw more young men and women to make the first sacrifice. But where will all this lead? Certainly not victory,'' he warned. ''We cannot fight them by the and of brawn alone. We must use our brains also.''

In addition to the leaders of the OIC members, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are participating in the OIC summit as visitors from countries with significant Muslim populations.

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