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Muslim leader accuses US of `paralyzing Islam'

The leader of Malaysia's Islamic fundamentalist party on Friday accused the United States of using its war on terror "to paralyze the rise of Islam" and seize control of oil reserves.

In his biggest speech since his party suffered a crushing defeat in general elections in March, Abdul Hadi Awang also accused Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government of supporting US ambitions and undermining Malaysia's sovereignty.

Opening the annual conference of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, Abdul Hadi launched a scathing attack on the US and its allies, describing them as "gangsters in the Persian Gulf," and accused them of attacking Islam under the pretext of combatting terrorism.

"Now they are trying to ... force Islamic countries to amend the teachings of Islam and remove jihad teachings from Islam so that the world is left only with a US version of Islam and not the teachings of the Prophet," Abdul Hadi said.

The address showed that Abdul Hadi has not moderated his hard-line Islamic stance after months of lying low since his party lost two-thirds of its parliamentary seats and one of the two states it had controlled.

The three-day congress opened in the party's long-time stronghold in Kelantan, a northern state that it barely retained in the elections, the first since Abdullah succeeded the retired Mahathir Mohamad as leader of Malaysia's multi-ethnic mainstream ruling coalition.

Abdul Hadi blamed this year's election defeat on vote rigging and power abuses. Seeking some consolation, his party hopes to add a state assembly seat in Kelantan in a by-election today. The seat came open after a legislator for Abdullah's coalition died June 30.

Abdul Hadi laid to rest speculation about whether the party -- which advocates an Islamic state -- would soften its views after taking stock of the election drubbing.

The US-led occupation of Iraq, Abdul Hadi said, was driven by "a hatred for Islam and greed for oil."

"They are not satisfied with being gangsters in the Persian Gulf and now ... are behaving like bullies in the Gulf of Thailand because in Southeast Asia, too, there is oil and Islam," Abdul Hadi said.

"The motive is none other than to paralyze the rise of Islam and to seize the oil wealth," Abdul Hadi said.

Muslims separatists in southern Thailand have been waging an insurgency that has left 300 people dead this year. Thailand and the Philippines, which faces a Muslim revolt in its south, are the only Southeast Asian countries to have committed troops to Iraq.

Washington irked Malaysia and Indonesia -- the world's largest Muslim country -- earlier this year when an admiral suggested that US warships would patrol the pirate-infested Straits of Malacca. The Americans backed off after both countries protested saying the move would infringe on their sovereignty.
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