‘If You Can’t Be Antisemitic, There’s No Free Speech,’ Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad Tells Appreciative Crowd at Columbia University
Ben Cohen
The Algemeiner
Wed Sep 25 2019
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad defended his right to express antisemitic views in the name of free speech in remarks to Columbia University students on Wednesday.
Speaking to a packed audience at the university’s Global Leaders Forum, the 94-year-old leader — whose decades-old conviction that “the Jews rule the world by proxy” has never wavered — also refused to say whether he accepted the fact that six million Jews were murdered during the Nazi Holocaust.
“Why can’t I say something about the Jews, when people say nasty things about me and about Malaysia?” Mahathir complained, as he responded to a powerfully-worded challenge posed by a member of the Columbia chapter of Students Supporting Israel.
The Malaysian leader went on to argue, “When you say ‘you cannot be antisemitic,’ there is no free speech.”...
