I refer to the letter ' Engage Americans, Europeans and Jews, not Israel ' by Sheela S.

It seems to be endemic in letters and speeches coming out of Malaysia where someone's good points are subsequently lost in idiocy. Sheela's good points on engaging the West in the solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (even though her solution of erasing Israel off the map is not a practical one) was completely lost when she talked of all the bad things that come from the West.

Her list of "bad things" included "soft drinks, alcohol, tobacco, lavish lifestyles, animal coat dresses, nuclear power, finger nail art and fight clubs".

Firstly, alcohol is a natural fermentation process that was discovered by many civilisations independently and was not a Western invention exported to corrupt the rest of the world. Tobacco was grown and used by the native groups of North America before being introduced into European society. The Indians of North America are indeed in the West but I don't see them being included in Mahathir's Jewish Conspiracy yet.

Lavish lifestyles can be evidenced in the wealthy elite of any culture East or West for where there is wealth there are those living "in comfort". There just happens to be more people with wealth in the West right now. As for finger nail art why doesn't Sheela criticise the many other cultures in Africa, South America and Asia that decorate and even deform their bodies in the name of beauty.

This may seem like I am focusing in on one small part of her letter and ignoring the rest but when one makes such statements that obviously show ignorance for or even forwards shameful untruths about an issue how can one accept the rest of the letter as factual and truthful?

This is the case of the PM's speech to the Organisation of Islamic Conference as well. His statements of the Jews, which have been so eloquently and insightfully analysed by other letter writers in malaysiakini , completely detracted from the other marvelous points in the speech.

After thinking about why he would have said those things I came to two conclusions.

Either that Dr M is a crazy paranoid old man who really thinks that the Jews rule the world and are his enemies or those statements were deliberately included to raise the ire of the very bogeyman that he wants the Muslim world to unite against and fight.

He had some harsh things to say about the Muslim world and the worldwide condemnation of his Jewish comments caused the Muslim leaders attending the conference to rally around him in support. This further cemented his position in the OIC and while supporting him against the evil West and their Jewish "puppet-masters" it softened the harshness of what needed to be said about the Muslim world. This way Mahathir can say that he was wisely critical of the Muslim world while maintaining his mythology as the golden defender of the East and Islam.

The problem comes when the bad things of the speech, namely the labeling of all Jews and the West as the enemy, take over from the good parts of his speech, namely the modernisation and reformation of Islamic attitudes in order for progress to occur. And this is why his speech should be condemned as ultimately it will help no one and further divide the world into Muslim and non-Muslim combatants while doing nothing to help Muslims progress.

Blaming the West or Jews for all the troubles of the Islamic world may be currently in vogue but is not the answer.

Muslims must seriously consider allowing the budding reformation movement currently underway in Iran, Egypt and elsewhere to fully flower but it will not come to fruition if the most conservative and militant elements continue to rule.

Muslims today are at a crossroad and with them lie the decision whether Islam becomes the scourge or the blessing of the 21st century.