Mahathir says war against Iraq aimed at Muslims
KUALA LUMPUR - The West's "mild admonishment" of North Korea over its weapons of mass destruction proves a looming US-led war against Iraq is targetting Muslims, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
Addressing a business forum on the eve of a summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) leaders he is to chair, Mahathir said an attack against Iraq "will simply anger more Muslims" who are likely to view it as a strike against their religion rather than against terrorism.
"The fact that North Korea's open admission that it has weapons of mass destruction has met only with mild admonishment by the West seems to prove that indeed it is against Muslims and not against the fear of possession of weapons of mass destruction by the so-called rogue states," he said.
While preparing to strike Iraq for its alleged failure to disarm, Washington has taken a low-key approach to Stalinist North Korea's withdrawal from a key nuclear arms treaty and its expulsion of UN inspectors monitoring its nuclear programme.
Both Iraq and North Korea are members of the 114-nation NAM, along with the other leg of US President George W.Bush's "axis of evil," Iran.
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