Dr Mahathir Mohamad today praised Iran and Qatar for rising above sanctions imposed on them and continuing to progress and develop.
The prime minister said Iran, in particular, which has seen a number of sanctions imposed on it including by the United States, has the fourth highest number of engineers in the world.
“Qatar, too, has been subjected to embargoes and, like Iran, it has managed to rise above them and progressed impressively,” he said at the Kuala Lumpur Summit.
Mahathir, however, warned that such sanctions and embargoes were not going to be exclusively for Iran and Qatar.
He said this was because the world was witnessing nations making unilateral decisions to impose such punitive measures on others.
“Malaysia and other nations must always bear in mind that it can be imposed on any of us,” he said.
Mahathir also said the three-day summit saw him and other leaders elaborate at length on the pitiful state of affairs of the Muslim world today.
He said there was also concern that Muslims in non-Muslim countries were forced to undergo assimilation.
“We support integration but assimilation to the extent of shedding our religion is unacceptable,” he said.
Mahathir said it was pointed out at the summit that if Muslim countries were independent and capable “of standing on their own feet”, they would not be subjected to such treatment.
He defended the summit, saying it was not out to replace other Muslim platforms or intended to create different categories or classes of Muslim nations. Nor was the summit out to undermine others.
“Some had misunderstood our intentions, intentionally or otherwise, some had felt slighted while a few were suspicious.
“By now, I am sure it is obvious that the negative opinions were misplaced and not justified,” he said.
Mahathir said the idea was to come together and to assess their strengths and weaknesses as well as assets.
“Then, we will use the strengths of one another to overcome the weaknesses we have,” he said.
