Malaysia is a democratic country to a great extent, and economically successful, and Muslims there are observant; it has a great degree of tolerance and openness to the world. Why don't Muslims throughout the world emulate Malaysia? Later in this column, I will offer my reasons for selecting Malaysia as a model. I will begin where I left off yesterday, and after talking about the enemies of Islam within, such as al-Qaida, the Taliban and all terrorist extremists, I will mention some enemies of Islam abroad, and they are many. They include right-wing politicians from the European Union and the United States, and Likudnik and fascist Israel supporters, and extremists Jews and fundamentalist Christians. I do not want to repeat what they say about Islam; if a Muslim heard them, he would not believe that they were talking about his religion. Suffice it to say that they describe Islam in supremacist terms, and sometimes ill will, as they talk as if all Muslims are al-Qaida and Taliban. Even so, I will say that the world is all right, as it appears from my last example about Islam, its enemies and defenders who are not Muslims – the project to build a large Islamic center near Ground Zero, or where the terror of 11 September 2001 took place in New York. For every opponent of building the center there, there was an American who defended it. While I was not surprised by those who led the campaign against the center, I admit that I was surprised by some of the defenders. Newt Gingrich, an ultra-neoconservative, attacked the center project in cheap terms, revealing the poverty of his intellect. After he reminded people of “the long struggle against radical Islam,” he opposed the project because there were no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. He failed to note that al-Qaida, which committed the terror of 11 September 2001, was the enemy of the regime in Saudi Arabia before becoming an enemy of American policy. Al-Qaida has always targeted Saudi Arabia with terror. Sarah Palin also opposed the center and considered it a stab in the heart of Americans; she asked Muslims to reject it (using Twitter and incorrectly using the non-word “refudiate,” and coming to repeat it). The scandal was that the Anti-Defamation (of Jews) League, which claims its motto is civil rights, tolerance and coexistence, opposed building the center and its president, Abraham Foxman, revealed his latent racism. Meanwhile, the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, a Jew supported building the center, as did the state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for governor. Three prominent American Jewish writers supported building the center: Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who specifically criticized the ADL; Richard Cohen, who criticized Gingrich; and Thomas Friedman. Among the supporters were American Jewish organizations, and Farid Zakaria, the right-wing writer, returned an award to the ADL, to protest its stance on the center. The above means that Muslims have been increasing their efforts to condemn terror and those who perpetrate it, and make the entire world understand that terrorists do not represent Islam and that they remain a very small minority, and very harmful, among Muslims. Here, I return to Malaysia. I was invited to a party in Monaco and I believed that it was to gather donations for Prince Albert's foundation for the defense of the environment. I found myself at an “Islamic dress festival,” patronized by Mrs. Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the prime minister of Malaysia. This followed my reading the world's newspapers about the very successful Malaysian television program to select “the young imam,” not a singer or dancer. There were six fashion shows of clothing, from Malaysia, Indonesia and Sarawok, and a Palestinian showing, by designer Hindi Mahdi, who works in Paris. The clothing was modest and the models wore the hijab. Mrs. Mansor said it was clothing for Muslims, and was in line with the modesty required of them. Nonetheless, she appeared very funny in her speech, and explained that she did not wear the hijab because her husband permitted this, even though she thought she looked better in it. She said the Muslims want to live in peace with people, and the clothing festival, which will travel the world, from New York to the Far East, via Monaco and Dubai, is meant to build bridges among people. Mrs. Mansour sat next to Prince Charles and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr, the prime minister of Qatar, and I was at a nearby table. I saw her discuss things with Prince Charles and Sheikh Hamad. When she took the podium to speak, she said that Sheikh Hamad looked at his watch ten times. However, she made him understand that he would not leave the hall before she spoke. She was getting revenge on him, and on us, with a long speech whose wittiness seemed to make shorter. I believe that Malaysia is a fine model for successful Muslims.
