Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is not the first one to call on Muslims to use oil as weapon if you recall highly respected energy authority Daniel Yergin's book The prize: The epic quest for oil, money, and power .

The 1973 oil crisis is a showdown from oil-producing Muslim countries in the Middle East towards the West on their policy on Israel. The chain of events triggered another crisis in 1982 which brought about an economic disaster.

Saudi Arabia paid a heavy price for that policy (oil price slumped after the crisis) and that's why they are very cautious when someone calls for the use of oil as weapon.

Many Muslim countries with large oil reserves usually have a corrupt and authoritarian government with a bad record on human rights. Usually, they are the ones who need a lot of oil money for economical reform (but not political reform due to lack of will power), as otherwise they will face social unrest or a coup.

The West has a more robust social and justice system with proper checks and balances compared with the Middle East which will pay a high price for such actions.

The world has changed so much in the last few decades. It is hard to use oil as a weapon today unless a big meteorite hits Earth and burns all the oil reserves in countries other than the Middle East.