The Gaza War, triggered by the murderous Hamas attacks on Israelis on 7 October, has polarised communities and nations. However, Malaysia, a multi-religious nation with a 65% Muslim majority, provides a unique example of how the narrative can be shaped by mainstream media, activists, governments and their agencies.
Two days after the Hamas attacks, the mainstream broadsheet New Straits Times, in an article by Luqman Hakim, summarised a ‘complex attack’ by the Hamas military wing on Israeli settlements which were taken over. The ‘Israeli Occupation Army’ then launched an operation against the Hamas groups. No mention was made of the massacres of Israeli civilians by the Hamas attackers. Attention was, however, directed to a mosque funded by Malaysian sources that was destroyed by Israeli bombing. The article concludes with the declaration that: ‘Despite the destruction, the jihadist spirit of Muslims will never fade.’
Refusing to criticise Hamas
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was reported as refusing Western pressure to criticise Hamas, stating that: ‘We, as a policy, have a relationship with Hamas from before, and this will continue … we don’t agree with [the West’s] pressuring attitude, as Hamas, too, won in Gaza freely through elections, and Gazans chose them to lead.’
