Anwar Ibrahim gave amplitude to the Palestinian cause by framing it within the ambit of the treatment of minorities in jurisdictions with multiple religious and ethnic confessions.

Speaking at Masjid Jamek in Kubang Semang yesterday on the occasion of the twinning of the mosque with the Nur Muhamadi mosque in Gaza City, Anwar said the just treatment of minorities had become a mark of the civility of governments composed of a dominant race or religious group.

NONE "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee," said Anwar in talk to scores of worshippers after maghrib prayers at the mosque in his parliamentary constituency of Permatang Pauh in Penang.

"Even now as the Palestinians suffer, thousands of Rohingyas are fleeing mob violence in Burma," Anwar reminded his audience.

Rohingyas are an impoverished Muslim minority in Burma, seemingly unwanted by their ethnic cousins in neighboring Bangladesh and shunned by the Rakhine Buddhists who form the majority in the Arakan region of western Burma.

In recent weeks, clashes between Rohingyas and Rakhines have left scores dead, villages and mosques razed, refugees fleeing to Bangladesh and women raped.

'Make fight for justice broadly inclusive'

The opposition leader revealed that in a recent message of solidarity he sent his counterpart in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, he hailed her reemergence to the fore of her country's politics and urged that Burma's newly liberalising dispensation be made broadly inclusive.

"We have to make the fight for justice broadly inclusive so that minorities are also included in our vision of what we want for our countries," said Anwar, who stopped in Kubang Semang for evening prayers before leaving for Nibong Tebal, where he addressed a huge crowd on the final stop of his half-day visit to Penang.

After listening to a presentation in Masjid Jamek on the need for more humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, Anwar said in his speech that if elected, the Pakatan Rakyat government would do more for the Palestinians.

The crowd at Masjid Jamek was told that funds are being raised in Malaysia to help build a children's hospital in Beit Hanoun, a town in Gaza.

Anwar urged Muslims in Malaysia to be conscious of the sufferings of their brethren in other countries and also of minorities who are oppressed simply because of the majority's dislike of the "others".