- WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US
House of Representatives late Thursday voted unanimously to repudiate comments
made by Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who ignited a firestorm
earlier this month by claiming Jews rule the world.
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- By a vote of 411 to 0, with one absention, the lower
chamber of Congress adopted a resolution condemning Mathahir's remarks
as "incendiary" and "despicable."
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- "Incendiary rhetoric of this nature can be neither
excused nor rationalized, " the resolution read, decrying the "age-old
stereotypes of Jewish global domination and grotesque anti-Semitism."
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- The resolution called upon other governments and international
bodies, particularly the European Union, to condemn Mahathir's comments,
which were made at the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference
held in Malaysia in mid-October.
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- Mahathir at the summit stated that "the Europeans
killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this
world by proxy."
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- The notoriously outspoken Asian leader, whose comments
drew global condemnation and outrage from Western nations, commented that
1.3 billion Muslims could not be defeated by a few million Jews.
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- The vote in the lower chamber of the US Congress comes
three days after the Senate unanimously approved a similar measure condemning
the Malaysia Prime Minister's remarks.
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- The Senate legislation called on the US State Department
to determine that Malaysia "supports and promotes religious freedoms,
including tolerance for people of the Jewish faith" before releasing
1.2 million dollars in foreign aid to Malaysia.
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