Muslims are easily oppressed and defeated in war because false religious teachings have made them backward, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

He told an international conference of Islamic scholars that Muslims "all over the world prayed for Allah to save the Iraqi Muslims and their country. But their prayers have not been answered."

This was not because Allah had abandoned the Muslims, but because they had not caught up with the developed world "in knowledge and the capacity to produce arms, to have disciplined and well-trained forces for their defence," Mahathir said.