MALAYSIAN RULERS STAND UP AGAINST EXTREMISM
MALAYSIAN RULERS STAND UP AGAINST EXTREMISM
From a
Muslim only laundry issue, the Malaysian Kings appear ready to clean the
country from radicalism and religious extremism. Malaysia is a multi religious,
multi racial and multi cultural society which is seeing a rise in islamic
radicalism due to Mahathir's Islamisation policy gone awry.
In the
past 30 years, Malaysia is gradually taking the hardline Islamism path in the
Malay Muslim majority country. Religion is good for politics. In fact, Malaysia
has a political party called PAS, the Malaysian Islamic Party. PAS, in
competition with the Malay dominant party UMNO had worsen the religious conflicts between Muslims themselves. The
signs for Islamic radicalism were there but political expedience allowed it to
grow more and more ugly.
A
Federal agency called Jakim, Malaysian Islamic Development Agency, set up by
Mahathir and Anwar, ostensibly to develop the tolerant and progressive face of
Islam has evolved into an agency that fuels radical and extremist
interpretations. It is rumoured that this agency gets federal funding of more
than RM I billion ! The Malaysian Muslims have now begun to question how it spends
or mispends its budget. The outspoken King of Johor had joined in the fray .
Instead
of focusing on matters that benefits the Muslim community in terms of assisting
it to progress, this body has evolved into another moral and religious policing
type of body. Sometime in mid year of 2017, Jakim found fit to focus its
energies on dog ownership by Muslims sparking yet questions about Jakim's direction.
It has long been suspected that Jakim has been infiltrated not only by
hardliners but radicalised Malay Muslims who had their Islamic education from
the volatile Middle Eastern Islamic universities.
In
October 2017, Jakim came into the limelight again when one of its radical
officers, one Dr Zamihan gave a sermon insulting the hygiene habits of
non-Muslims, especially the Chinese. He had also openly criticised the King of
Johor's move to discourage any laundrette services that segregate between Muslims
and non-Muslims.
In
response to Zamihan's hardline disruptive speech, the King of Johor likened him
to an empty barrel.
The
Rulers conference, which is a committee of all the rulers of Malayisia also
took a positive and firm stand on religious extremism and radical Islamism.
While this is welcome, it is ironical that Najib's government, which ostensibly
promotes moderation has chosen to remain silent on Jakim's increasing radical
stance on islam.
Many
feel that at the end of the day, the Malay Muslims will suffer in the modern
world when they are being lullabied by extreme Islamism views. There is a real
worry that the religious conflicts so common in other Muslim majority countries
is being gradually sown in Malaysia.
Syed
Ali Kamran.
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