Say what?

Dr Mahathir is again not doing credit to himself and the Islamic world at large. In response to Geert Wilders' Fitna video, Dr M is calling on the entire Muslim world to boycott Dutch products. Can we hear something more original and more effective, please? As a long-serving PM of Malaysia, with geo-political experience, I expect him to have more than a certain level of understanding and knowledge of the world today compared to the common man/woman. Therefore he cannot not be aware of the fact that many people in the Netherlands are Muslims, his brothers and sisters in the faith he professes and claims to be defending in his latest 'call to arms'. His call for the boycott will probably hurt Geert Wilder, but it will also hurt his brothers and sisters in the faith too, many of whom live in the Netherlands today. The world is no longer a monolithic Dutch vs Malays vs Chinese, etc. in any one piece of land. And Dr M labeling every person who is Dutch anti-Islamic just because one of them acts in a certain way is surely immature and unbecoming of a former statesman and PM . I daresay that some 17 year olds can be more mature in thought compared to him. Is he getting senile, I wonder? On the other hand, the Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has reportedly called on the Islamic world to be level-headed in its response to the film. "Let's keep a cool head and warm relations," Mr Verhagen was quoted as saying in Asharq Al Awsat, which is read in many Arab countries. He has "...distanced his government from the text of the film, which he said made generalisations and was polarising." (Today, 31 Apr 2008 "Dr M calls for Dutch boycott').

Dr. M will do well to keep his own counsel and not shoot off that mouth at every opportunity. It appears that the more he says, the more he chips away at the goodwill and legacy he has built up over so many years among his people and those of the world. Granted not many in the Western world are particularly enamored of this straight-talking man, but continuing to give offence in such as a manner discredits his thinking and makes even his friends cringe.