“Have we pawned the pride of Muslims in matters concerning Israel just for the sake of money and trade?“

- Amanah MP Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad, 2018

COMMENT | Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s comments on the economic justification of doing business with Israeli-linked companies operating outside of Israel are demonstrative of the damage antisemitic narratives of mainstream Malaysian politics have wrought over the decades when it comes to political and social cohesion.

The context of the quote that opens this piece is the visit by an Israeli delegation to a United Nations-sponsored event in Kuala Lumpur.

Amanah MP Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad also said - “Just days after the deputy prime minister sent home 12 Uighur Muslims back to China on the pretext of maintaining ‘good relations’ between the two countries, what has become of Muslim dignity and pride in the country?”

Political operatives from either side of the divide, Muslim and non-Muslim, like to claim that the Palestinian issue is an important matter to all Malaysians.

First of all, in the Malaysian context, we are divided along racial and religious lines, and accorded special privileges depending on which race and religion we belong to.

So, claiming that Malaysians respond to this issue as equal citizens is misleading...