Dr M warns against copying Europeans, says LGBT leads to extinction

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today sarcastically called Europeans to continue practising the LGBTQ+ lifestyle so they will one day become extinct.

In his speech at a roundtable discussion about the role of Muslim women in Malaysia, Mahathir reminded the audience they should be careful when emulating Europeans, especially when it comes to morality.

“Today, we see that men and women in Europe can have same-sex marriage. We have heard about LGBT there, the community can now accept this as a form of equality where a man can be with another man while a woman can be with another woman.

“I hope they will continue to do this because by practising LGBT, they won’t be able to have children and eventually, their race will become extinct.

“That is why we have to be careful. While we strive for equality, we have to differentiate their principles from ours.

“We have to have certain limits and maintain our morality,” Mahathir said in his closing speech at the event titled “Masa depan umat Islam di Malaysia: Peranan wanita antara tuntutan dan kewaspadaan”. (The future of Muslims in Malaysia: The role of women between demands and caution)

It was held at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya and involved Muslim women leaders, activists, and academicians, among others.

In his speech, the former premier also praised women in the country for their achievements and urged them to strive further in fighting for equal opportunities.

However, he claimed overdoing it like what is happening in the West can be detrimental to the community.

“In our culture, a family constitutes a man and woman who have children together. But not them, they accept same-sex couples.

“When this happens, they can’t have kids and if they want to, they would have to use another person to be their surrogate.

“This is erasing the concept of a family. That is why, when we fight for equality in this country, we have to think carefully and not emulate everything the West is doing because not everything is good for us.

“Other than that, we should fight for equality. Like now, we have women as fighter pilots. There is no problem in that, but not to the extent of accepting LGBT and destroying the family institution,” he said.

High frequency of harassment

However, contradictory to Mahathir’s notion that LGBTQ+ is a widely accepted lifestyle in Europe, the community reportedly faces a high frequency of harassment on the continent.

According to a statement by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in May, discrimination against LGBTQ+ in Europe remains high albeit showing a declining trend.

“Over one in three face discrimination in their daily life because of who they are. This is a slight decrease from two in five in 2019.

“Yet, discrimination remains invisible as only one in 10 report incidents,” the agency said.

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