Muslims Should Blame Themselves For Their Problems Today, Says Dr Mahathir

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KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- Many of the crises faced by Muslims and the Muslim world were largely due to their own fault, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
The former prime minister said crises were not something new to the Muslim world as they existed since the Quran began to be interpreted in many ways by different groups.
He added that there were so many teachings in Islam due to the many interpretations of the religion by many people.
"Crises and problems also began when Muslim scholars began to neglect subjects perceived to be secular such as science, mathematics, medicine and engineering, but focused only on religious studies.
"This was a big mistake which had a negative impact on the Muslim world until today.
"I would like to insist that the fault lies on ourselves. We are the people to be blamed, letting ourselves split by so many sects and different interpretations of the Quran," Dr Mahathir said in his keynote address on "Global Peace: Crisis in the Muslim World" at the International Islamic University (IIU), Gombak, near here.
The event was held in conjunction with the university's ummah unity week.
At one time, Dr Mahathir said, Muslims were leaders in science, mathematics, astronomy, architecture, engineering and medicine while the Western world lagged behind them and were in the dark ages.
However, the Europeans, noticing the knowledge acquired by Muslim scholars, began to learn Arabic to get access to the (various fields of) knowledge and got out of the dark ages and achieved the Renaissance.
He said while the Europeans developed powerful military forces, Muslims however, become less knowledgeable and less capable of doing things for themselves, including defending themselves.
"The enemies of Islam managed to master the technology of weapon-making and sold weapons which are used to kill Muslims.
"Unfortunately, we have to align ourselves with those who are not really sympathetic to ourselves. So, we should think what we didnt do which caused this misfortune and get the remedy," added Dr Mahathir.
Dr Mahathir said while Muslims depended on the 'ulamak' (Muslim scholars) to understand their religion, unfortunately the ulamak were greedy and their understanding and interpretation of Quran, varied.
"So today, we have not just Islam… but Sunni, Syiah, Wahhabism... so many interpretations of Islam. Some are even prepared to declare other Muslims as non-Muslims," he said.
Later, during the question-and-answer session, Dr Mahathir said that for the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to be effective, member countries should do away with the current consensus system when dealing with issues, but go for majority-based decisions.
At the end of his 45-minute address, he directed a Malay proverb to the Muslim world, "Bila sesat, balik pangkal jalan" (When you have lost the way, go back to the beginning)
"...and the beginning is the teachings of the Quran and the Hadith," said Dr Mahathir.