And so they were -- at least some of them. But Mahathir is not the only person who has been making statements that are 'wrong and divisive' lately, and observers in the Muslim world can be forgiven for thinking that there seems to be a double-standard in the US when it comes to offensive statements that are anti-Semitic and offensive statements that are anti-Muslim.

It has recently been reported that Lieutenant General William Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence in the US, has been quoted making statements besides which Mahathir's comments pale into insignificance.

Boykin apparently agrees with many in the Muslim world that, despite repeated protestations to the contrary from his president and other senior administration officials, the war against terrorism that the US is waging is indeed a war against Islam.

Referring to a skirmish between Delta forces under his command and a Muslim warlord in Somalia, the resolutely off-message Boykin has been quoted as saying: "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

This messianic conviction of Boykin's apparently informs his prosecution of the US war against terrorism, in which he, somewhat alarmingly, plays a major role. Last June, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, tapped Boykin to head up the defence department unit responsible for tracking down terrorists.

Boykin has taken to his new assignment with literally religious fervour. In Boykin's mind: "Satan wants to destroy [the US], he wants to destroy us as a nation, and he wants to destroy us as a Christian army."

Showing his audience slides of Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong Il, Boykin posed the question: "Why do they hate us?" before confidently providing the answer: "Because we're a Christian nation. We are hated because we are a nation of believers."

By any reasonable standard of judgement, Boykin's remarks are offensive and ignorant, and far worse than anything Mahathir said at the OIC summit. Mahathir may have railed against "the Jews" who "rule this world by proxy" but he did not go so far as to pour scorn on their religion and accuse them of worshipping a false god.

In fairness to the US media, Boykin has recently come under some fire for his intemperate words. Fareed Zakaria, writing in Newsweek, has called for him to be fired, and the Washington Post has issued an editorial calling on President Bush to criticise Boykin.

But the New York Times, which devoted an editorial to "Islamic Anti-Semitism," apparently remains unperturbed by anti-Muslim rhetoric from one of the senior officials in the US war against terrorism, and, in general, Boykin's inflammatory words have not hit the headlines the way that Mahathir's did.

One can argue that Boykin's words are more than merely offensive and that he has shown himself to be utterly unfit for the critical post in the war against terrorism that he holds.

But of course, far from firing him, President Bush, who took the time to rebuke Mahathir to his face and to widely publicise this fact, has not seen fit to criticize Boykin for the offensiveness of his comments and clearly considers the issue of minor concern.

Last Wednesday, Bush finally -- if belatedly -- repudiated Boykin's comments. But his statement to reporters on Airforce One: "He didn't reflect my opinion. It just doesn't reflect what the government thinks." falls far short of the earful that Mahathir received, and indicates that, in Bush's eyes, Boykin's offence is the political damage he has done by casting the war against terrorism in religious terms, not that his statements are offensive to Muslims.

And of course Boykin retains his high-level position in the US department of defense. "Nobody's thinking about asking him to step aside," confirmed a spokesman for the department.

Meanwhile, Muslims around the world can be forgiven for taking this inconsistency as the latest evidence of what they have long believed -- that the war against terror is indeed conceived of by many in the US as a war against Islam, and that it is acceptable to make bigoted and offensive comments as long as they are anti-Muslim and not anti-Semitic.

I wouldn't go as far as the unrepentant Mahathir who smugly concludes that the reaction to his speech proves that Jews really do control the world (you have to give the man points for chutzpah if nothing else).

But Bush's silence with respect to Boykin's anti-Muslim bigotry does send the message that there is a disturbing double-standard in the US when it comes to offensive statements that are anti-Semitic and offensive statements that are anti-Muslim.

Zafar Sobhan is an Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.