Malaysia Matters Podcast

Another organization for which Anwar has provided leadership is The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). Background on WAMY courtesy of www.discoverthenetworks.org.

The World Assembly of Muslim Youth is also one of the vehicles through which the Saudi Wahhabi government funds Islamic extremism and international terrorism. WAMY was co-founded by Kamal Helwabi, a former senior member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and by Osama bin Laden’s nephew, Abdullah bin Laden (who served as WAMY’s President through 2002 and is now its Treasurer). WAMY raises funds for the terrorist group Hamas, and in October 2002 made Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al an “honored guest” at a Muslim youth and globalization conference held in Riyadh. WAMY also helps finance the Kashmir insurgency against India, characterizing it as a “liberation” movement. 

A Saudi opposition group reports that WAMY disseminates literature encouraging “religious hatred and violence against Jews, Christians, Shi’a and Ashaari Muslims.” As WAMY puts it, this literature is expressly designed ”to teach our children to love taking revenge on the Jews and the oppressors, and teach them that our youngsters will liberate Palestine and Jerusalem when they go back to Islam and make jihad for the sake of Allah.” Some WAMY publications have included interviews with Saudi clerics such as Ayed al-Qarni, an adviser to Saudi Prince Fahd. In one such interview, al-Qarni stated that he prays for America’s destruction daily, that he encourages students to go to Iraq to fight against U.S. forces, and that those who cannot go should at least contribute money to the cause. Another WAMY publication features a list of “martyrs” who have attacked and murdered Israelis; one of the individuals on this list is a man who drove 14 bus passengers off a cliff as a member of the group “Heroes from Palestine.” 

Investigations of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center uncovered, in an apartment of one of the terrorists, an envelope marked “WAMY” along with a training manual on how to set up terrorist cells in other countries and stage attacks.

WAMY came under FBI scrutiny after 9/11, when it was determined that a radiologist, Dr. Al Badr al-Hamzi, whose credit card was found among the possessions of the hijackers, was receiving funding from the organization. The Senate Finance Committee requested that the IRS examine WAMY’s U.S. branch for links to terrorism. WAMY was also named in a trillion-dollar lawsuit by the families of the victims of 9/11.

In May 2004, federal law-enforcement, immigration, and anti-terrorism agents raided WAMY’s Alexandria, Virginia office, seizing all of its computers and hard drives, and arresting a volunteer board member, Ibrahim Abdullah, on immigration charges. WAMY had been operating out of the office of Jamal Barzinji, who was involved with a total of seven organizations that were raided by federal agents in connection with terrorist financing. After the raid on its office, WAMY likened itself to the YMCA, saying that it was interested only in “youth education, youth development, and serving the Muslim community.” 

Though WAMY’s activities in the United States were derailed, its operations elsewhere in the world continue unabated — in many instances with the help of other, likeminded organizations. For example, WAMY’s efforts in Somalia are supported by  the “Christian charities” Novib and Oxfam, which are based in the United Kingdom and Holland, respectively. 

One of WAMY’s closest affiliates is the European Council for Fatwa and Research, which aims to spread fundamentalist Islam and implement Shari’a (Islamic Law) worldwide. Another organization with intimate ties to WAMY is the Muslim Students’ Association of the U.S. and Canada. And four directors of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) – including Anwar Ibrahim, a terror-supporting Malaysian Islamist who co-founded IIIT – are trustees of WAMY.  

In December 1999, WAMY announced at a press conference in Saudi Arabia that it “was extending both moral and financial support to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) ”to help it construct its $3.5 million headquarters in Washington, D.C.”  WAMY also agreed to “introduce CAIR to Saudi philanthropists and recommend their financial support for the headquarters project.” In 2002, CAIR and WAMY jointly announced, again from Saudi Arabia, their collaboration on a $1 million public-relations campaign.

Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz calls WAMY “the Saudi equivalent of the Hitler Youth: a hate-mongering, ultra-extremist group preaching, among other niceties, that Shia Muslims are not real Muslims, but products of a Jewish conspiracy.” The website Militant Islam Monitor characterizes the organization as “part of the Saudi Wahhabist ‘Jihad through conversion’ drive.”

Anwar’s recent anti-semitic remarks gave us pause and cause to take stock of the man and another look at his record and past associations. It is of paramount importance that both Malaysians and Americans understand the dangerous implications of a Malaysia ruled by Anwar Ibrahim.

As is pointed out by Ganesh Sahathevan of the The Terror Finance Blog, “many Westerners believe Anwar to be a liberal who would prefer the rule of civil law rather than Sharia. This belief is often relied on to argue against any evidence of his involvement in the financing of terrorism , or at the very least, structures that lead to acts of terrorism.”

But the evidence of involvement with those connections can’t, and shouldn’t be ignored - especially by Americans (including Gore) who seem to be drawn in by Anwar’s ‘underdog’ status as opposition leader and choose to ignore facts about his past. 

His role in founding the International Institute of Islamic Thought, and the IIIT’s subsequent financing of jihadist and Islamist organisations known to be involved in acts of terrorism should set off alarm bells.

For instance, during Israel’s action in Lebanon, Anwar’s commentary in the press was very pro-Hamas and anti-Israeli. It would seem that associates of his put that sentiment into action. A board member of Anwar’s IIIT, Sheik Yusuf Al-Qardawi, “for whom Anwar has great admiration, ” is the likely founder and leader of the “Union for Good,” an association now banned in Israel because it is a de facto Hamas support network.

…said Malaysian foreign minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim in response to criticism made by former US Vice President, Al Gore. 

“We hope he [Gore] will stop goring as it is about time he re-examines the goring process within himself and his country,” Rais said after a flag-hoisting ceremony in Putrajaya in conjunction with Asean’s 41st anniversary.

Rais was reacting to a recent statement whereby Gore accused the Malaysian government of using “character assassination” twice in an effort to politically destroy Anwar Ibrahim. -That is, once this summer, and then again back in 1998.

Almost ten years ago Gore similarly offended Malaysians during Anwar’s first difficulty with sodomy charges. At that time, Gore actually utilized some of the opposition slogans as part of his public criticism of the Malaysian government. 

Mr Gore also used the word ‘reformasi’ - the rallying cry of anti-government protestors who support the sacked Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim.

It was Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s responsibility as the then-Foriegn Minister to chastize Gore for his “irresponsible incitement.”

But fast forward to 2008. Gore is yet again backing Anwar.

What is behind this? 

Has Gore been paying attention? Does he understand that Anwar’s coalition partners include the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party - the same guys that have recruited folks to go to Pakistan and fight with the Taliban?

And, of course, the irony here is that, given PAS’s ideal to move the government towards instituting an ever-more universal Sharia law, it is the very sort of statute that Anwar is charged with that PAS would stand behind.

So if Gore is hoping to back the crew that seeks to further westernize Malaysia’s democracy, he’s sitting in the wrong camp.

As an uncertain financial climate weighs on the US economy, appreciation for the significant bearing it has on the well-being of Malaysia’s economy is gaining attention in the press.

Shankaran Nambiar, writing for the Star, points out that, aside from the strain on the economy resulting from home-grown problems, that “shock waves” emanating from the US have a big impact on the Malaysian situation.

He points to data from the US dot-Com collapse in 2001 showing that the Malaysian growth rate slid to 0.5% In the meantime, with the US the largest destination for exports at 16% of the total, and with a substantial portion of the 15% that goes directly to Singapore eventually ending up in the US, a slowdown in US importation due to a shaky economic footing will mean a downturn for Malaysia as well. 

Nambiar points to milestones in making his case.

There was a double whammy June and July. After losing hundreds of thousands of US jobs in the first half of 2008 and with the rate of inflation at its highest in 17 years in June, the July IndyMac failure and Fannie and Freddie bailout underscored the enormity of the 2007 mortgage crisis, the full effects of which likely not yet have been felt.

With some reports that more than a million US citizens have been foreclosed upon.

In late February, Nouriel Roubini, in a written testimony to the House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee, claimed that the US economy was at risk of a systemic financial meltdown. Roubini, a professor at the Stern School of Business, New York University, presented eight reasons why he thought a financial meltdown could not be avoided.

Structurally, the US economy has not been on solid ground for some time now. Its budget deficit has been rising, and now amounts to about US$357bil. It has a current account deficit of about 5.5% of gross domestic product, which declined from a deficit that stood at about 7%, a few years ago.

By many accounts worst is not over for the US economy. In addition to falling consumer confidence, high inflation, and reduced demand from firms, the US dollar is expected to drop further. The dollar, which has already dropped by 21% against the currencies of its major trading partners, is expected to drop further, reducing the purchasing capacity of Americans.

And with 60% of the economy reliant upon consumer purchase, that spells real trouble.

The result of all of this, according to Nambiar, is the likelihood that Malaysia will impose increasing interest rates in an attempt to stave off inflation in response to developments in the US, and thereby subsequently hamstring domestic investment. 

Malaysia has an extra bit of interest in the outcome of the US presidential election. Obama’s brother-in-law is Malaysian. 

An assistant professor at the University of Hawaii in Manoa (UHM), Ng, whose family originally comes from Sabah, is married to Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro.

Though Ng was actually born in Canada, he has relatives still living throughout Malaysia.  Maya was born in Jakarta. They return to the area every few years to maintain close ties.

Under the weight of increasing food and fuel costs, leaders at the D8 are calling for a shift away from biofuel crops in favor of ensuring that sufficient quantities of food are produced.

Abdullah Badawi, the Malaysian prime minister, said the use of arable land for biofuels “should be stopped because such action will deepen the global food scarcity and further drive up food prices”.

“We must not allow the zeal for energy security to come into direct conflict with the basic need for food production,” he told the Developing Eight summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Data is beginning to support the contention that instead of attaining fuel security, the escalation in production of biofuels has instead been directly responsible for the increasing distortion of food prices as well as increases in the costs of fuel.

Last Friday the Guardian Newspaper printed a story on an as-yet unpublished World Bank report that indicates biofuel policy and production is responsible for a 75% increase in global fuel prices.

Rising food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as “the first real economic crisis of globalisation”.

“Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate,” says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.

It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.

But from a much less empirical standpoint, shouldn’t the implications of intermingling food and fuel policies have seemed lacking in common sense right from the start?

After all, when I was a kid, my mother told me that it was bad manners to play with my food. I can only imagine that burning it would have horrified her.

Yesterday, Jerome Armstrong and I had the privilege of sitting down to interview Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder and CEO of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, author of “What’s Right with Islam,” imam of Masjid al-Farah in New York City, and most important — for our purposes — the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Cordoba Initiative. The Cordoba Initiative is part of the reason we’re here in Kuala Lumpur: it is co-sponsoring, with the Malaysian Foreign Ministry, the Third International Conference on the Muslim World and the West (about which more anon), and it has as its core mission the “[healing of] the relationship between the Islamic World and America.”

Imam Feisal was extraordinarily generous with his time, and though the exchange was intense at points, we managed to discuss an impressive array of issues, from American elections, to a commonality of values between America and Islam, to Malaysian history, and beyond. With apologies for the rather erratic audio quality, please settle in for a conversation with the Imam.

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