The West's "mild admonishment" of North Korea over its weapons of mass destruction proves a looming US-led war against Iraq is targetting Muslims, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said.
Addressing a business forum on the eve of a summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) leaders he is to chair, Mahathir said an attack against Iraq "will simply anger more Muslims" who are likely to view it as a strike against their religion rather than against terrorism.
"The fact that North Korea's open admission that it has weapons of mass destruction has met only with mild admonishment by the West seems to prove that indeed it is against Muslims and not against the fear of possession of weapons of mass destruction by the so-called rogue states," he said.
While preparing to strike Iraq for its alleged failure to disarm, Washington has taken a low-key approach to Stalinist North Korea's withdrawal from a key nuclear arms treaty and its expulsion of UN inspectors monitoring its nuclear programme.
Both Iraq and North Korea are members of the 114-nation NAM, along with the other leg of US President George W.Bush's "axis of evil," Iran.
The movement is to reject a US-led attack on Iraq and urge a resolution of the crisis through the United Nations in a statement to be released at the summit.
It is also to urge Iraq to cooperate "actively" with weapons inspectors searching for banned weapons of mass destruction, according to a resolution agreed by NAM foreign ministers.
The outspoken Malaysian leader, whose largely Muslim country is hosting the two-day summit opening Monday, also hit out at the paranoia created by the global war against terrorism.
"We are afraid of Muslims, of Arabs, of bearded people," he told the forum of business executives and diplomats.
Developing nations, many of them NAM members, had to learn to operate in a climate darkened by terror fears, he said.
"It's going to be very difficult... But if we don't learn how to handle this poor business environment we can only get worse."
Mahathir also challenged NAM, whose members are nations from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, to unite to make its voice heard internationally.
The UN Security Council and global financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, "remain under the firm grip of a few countries", he said.
NAM would have to overcome twin challenges of political instability and corruption to beat poverty in many member states and attract investments.
"Political instability and corruption are the two most important obstructions to business and wealth creation. We of the South must overcome these weaknesses if we want to see business activities prosper our countries," he said.
He criticised NAM members who have spent "billions on armaments and weapons of destruction" at the expense of fighting malnutrition, illiteracy and disease.
Democracy "for the time being" offers the best political system for developing countries, but "a benevolent autocrat can do wonders to develop a nation," he said.
"Clearly it is not the system that counts, it is the practitioners of the system."