21 November 2015•Update: 21 November 2015
By Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysia's prime minister has used his opening speech at the 27th ASEAN Summit to lash out at those who commit extremism and terrorism, saying that Malaysia was ready to provide any help towards eliminating a "new evil that blasphemed Islam".
Premier Najib Razak began his speech Saturday in Kuala Lumpur by referencing those who lost their lives in recent terror acts in Paris, Beirut, Sinai, Mali, and the southern Philippines.
He then noted that it was worth examining why anyone should be misguided enough to follow Daesh's perverted ideology.
“What is their motivation?" he asked, according to state news agency Bernama. "Let us be clear -- it’s an utter travesty of a religion of peace, justice and moderation."
Speaking as the 2015 ASEAN chairman to leaders from across Southeast Asia, he underlined that military might alone would not be enough to defeat those who are bent on causing war, mayhem, death and desolation and despair.
“It is the ideology propagated by these extremists that is the cause of this sadistic violence, and in this time of tragedy we must not lose sight of the fact that the ideology itself must be exposed as the lie that it is -- and vanquished.
“For it is not Islamic. It cannot be,” he underlined.
Touching on the methods of those who killed almost 200 people in Beirut and Paris, Najib said: “Suicide -- under any circumstances, never mind suicide bombing that kills the innocents -- is a terrible sin.”
The perpetrators of such cowardly and barbaric acts do not represent any race, religion and creed, stated Razak, nor should they be allowed to claim to do so.
“They’re terrorists and should be confronted as such, with the full force of the law,” he said, calling for vigilance against a threat he called "very real".
“The thoughts and prayers of us all -- Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and people of others faiths -- are with the people of Russia, France, Lebanon and Mali as well as with the families of last month’s bombing in Ankara, and with the people of Syria and Iraq whose suffering has endured for so long,” he said.
“We pray that a more moderate and peaceful world will one day consign such outrages and murderous ideologies to the past,” he said, adding that Malaysia is ready to provide any help towards eliminating what he described as this new evil that blasphemed Islam.
