Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) Earlier this month, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad repeated anti-Semitic claims he has made since the 1970s that Jews are “hook-nosed” and that the extent of the holocaust is greatly exaggerated by historians. In an interview with the BBC, Mohamad went on to blame conflict in the Middle East solely on Israel, stating, “If you are going to be truthful, the problem in the Middle East began with the creation of Israel. That is an old truth.” Mohamad is serving as prime minister of Malaysia for the second time, having previously served between 1981 and 2003. Mohamad’s comments are not a new phenomenon, as his published autobiography features comments on Jews such as “the Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.” Mohamad defends his statements by asserting that his discriminatory language is not unique to Jews, but rather that there are “many races in this world, I have said nasty thing about them but they never accuse me of anti this or that.” Mohamad’s comments about the Holocaust are, however, unique to this flavor of his bigotry. Mohamad told the BBC that “you cannot even mention that in the Holocaust it was not six million [Jews who died],” when speaking about his ire towards of Israel. Mohamad’s visit to the United Kingdom, where he gave his BBC interview, was met with controversy and pushback from Jewish groups in Britain. Mohamad visited Imperial College and the University of Oxford as well as the BBC. That Mohamad, who claimed in 2013 that the “Jews rule the world by proxy, [t]hey get others to fight and die for them,” received recent invitations to speak at both academic institutions and the United Nations within one week is disheartening. The Anti-Defamation League chastised the UN, stating, “the world cannot accept this from any leader.” Sadly, Prime Minister Mohamad’s success demonstrates that the world political community accepts this bigotry, with few countries or groups willing to speak out against his bigotry.