Malaysian PM Repeats Charge About Jews (Bush content)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - An unrepentant Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad shrugged off criticism from President Bush and repeated his charge that
Jews control the world - adding that he's worried about Christian
fundamentalists in the Bush administration as well.

But Mahathir said his remarks last week at a summit in Malaysia of Islamic
countries had been taken out of context, noting that in his speech he had urged
Israelis and Arabs to stop killing one another.

``In my speech I condemned all violence, even the suicide bombings, and I told
the Muslims it's about time we stopped all these things and paused to think and
do something that is much more productive,'' he said in an interview with the
Bangkok Post published Tuesday. ``That was the whole tone of my speech, but
they picked up one sentence.''

``I can't very well be criticizing Muslim countries without at the same time
pointing out the mistakes and the wrong acts performed by the Jews,'' Mahathir
told a press conference Tuesday after the close of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation summit in Thailand.

Mahathir also denied that Bush had told him off at the APEC forum.

``He did pull me aside, in order to explain to me why he made such a strong
statement against me,'' Mahathir told reporters in Bangkok. ``Certainly, he did
not rebuke me. After that, we were walking practically hand-in-hand. How do you
say a person is rebuking another person if our relations are that good?''

Mahathir, who retires at the end of this month after 22 years as the leader of
mainly Muslim Malaysia, often makes acerbic speeches against globalization and
U.S. policy in the Middle East.

He triggered an uproar last week at the summit by stating that ``Jews rule the
world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.''

That led Bush to pull him aside at the APEC meeting to say the remarks were
``wrong and divisive,'' a White House spokesman said.

A senior Malaysian official said Bush's personal rebuke of Mahathir, considered
a senior statesman in Asia, was disrespectful.

``I consider Bush's action rude, as though he wants to determine what and how a
person should speak and say something,'' Rais Yatim, Malaysia's de facto law
minister, was quoted as saying in Kuala Lumpur by the Malaysian news agency,
Bernama.

In the Bangkok Post interview, Mahathir stood by his earlier statements on Jews
and said the global reaction, including criticism from many international
leaders, ``shows that (Jews) do control the world.''

``Israel is a small country. There are not many Jews in the world. But they are
so arrogant that they defy the whole world. Even if the United Nations say no,
they go ahead. Why? Because they have the backing of all these people,''
Mahathir was quoted as saying.

He said he was concerned that Christian fundamentalists held positions of power
in the U.S. government ``a development we worry about, because like the
so-called Muslim extremists, Christian fundamentalists tend to have the extreme
views.''

Mahathir singled out the case of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, the U.S.
deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, who has said that the war on
terror is a Christian fight against Satan, and that Muslims worship an idol. In
fact, Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews.

Boykin's remarks reveal ``a biased view of Muslims,'' Mahathir said. ``And for
a military man to have that kind of view and to lead his forces against the
Muslims makes us worried, because he may want to vent his feelings rather than
carry out a specific operation.''

By DENIS D. GRAY