By: Daniel Nardini
Most Malay women, who are Muslim, typically wear the hijab or headscarf. There is no law in Malaysia that requires women to wear the hijab. Nevertheless most do wear the hijab not because of any law nor because they voluntarily do so but because they feel “pressured” to do so. That pressure is coming from a growing number of fundamentalist Muslim groups who want not just traditional Muslim sharia (religious) law but a very fundamentalist interpretation of sharia law.
In fact, most Malays, who are Muslim, do not want this. The answer is not hard to figure out why. Like people anywhere, they wish to live a good quality of life. Like people elsewhere they wish to worship in their own way, and like people elsewhere most Malay Muslims do not want cruel or unusual punishments. All that said Malaysia is facing a growing Muslim fundamentalist segment that wants to make Malaysia what Afghanistan was under the Taliban. If this sounds frightening then you can imagine how many Malay Muslims feel about it.
It scares the tar out of them. There was one case of a sharia court actually sentencing a well-known Malay modal to nine lashes of the whip for having a beer. The international outcry was so great that she was forced to do public service instead. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, radical Islam has been creeping into many Muslim countries like Malaysia. Radical terrorist groups have threatened ruling monarchs in a number of Malaysia’s state to introduce and enforce fundamentalist sharia laws whether the people like it or not (I should explain that Malaysia is a federation of monarchy states. Every year the monarch of one state takes control of the federation in rotation).
Radical terrorist groups are scaring the central government in the capital Kuala Lumpur. While the majority of people in Malaysia are Muslim, Malaysia is also made up of ethnic Chinese, Indian and other minorities. Malaysia also has considerable Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities. Malaysia’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion. However, radical terrorist groups want to attack and eradicate all other minority religions. Christian churches have been attacked and burnt. Buddhist temples have been desecrated. Some political parties, like the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, want a complete and total Islamic state where non-Malays and other religions have no rights whatsoever.
All of this is scaring the heck out of Malay Muslims too. Most Malaysians want their country to be a moderate Muslim state where all religions are acceptable. But powerful forces both outside the political process and even in the political process threaten to change Malaysia into a fundamentalist Islamic state. If a moderate Muslim state like Malaysia is radically changed then who is to say it cannot happen throughout the rest of the Muslim world?
The Fight for Malaysia’s Soul
By: Daniel Nardini
In fact, most Malays, who are Muslim, do not want this. The answer is not hard to figure out why. Like people anywhere, they wish to live a good quality of life. Like people elsewhere they wish to worship in their own way, and like people elsewhere most Malay Muslims do not want cruel or unusual punishments. All that said Malaysia is facing a growing Muslim fundamentalist segment that wants to make Malaysia what Afghanistan was under the Taliban. If this sounds frightening then you can imagine how many Malay Muslims feel about it.
It scares the tar out of them. There was one case of a sharia court actually sentencing a well-known Malay modal to nine lashes of the whip for having a beer. The international outcry was so great that she was forced to do public service instead. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, radical Islam has been creeping into many Muslim countries like Malaysia. Radical terrorist groups have threatened ruling monarchs in a number of Malaysia’s state to introduce and enforce fundamentalist sharia laws whether the people like it or not (I should explain that Malaysia is a federation of monarchy states. Every year the monarch of one state takes control of the federation in rotation).
Radical terrorist groups are scaring the central government in the capital Kuala Lumpur. While the majority of people in Malaysia are Muslim, Malaysia is also made up of ethnic Chinese, Indian and other minorities. Malaysia also has considerable Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities. Malaysia’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion. However, radical terrorist groups want to attack and eradicate all other minority religions. Christian churches have been attacked and burnt. Buddhist temples have been desecrated. Some political parties, like the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, want a complete and total Islamic state where non-Malays and other religions have no rights whatsoever.
All of this is scaring the heck out of Malay Muslims too. Most Malaysians want their country to be a moderate Muslim state where all religions are acceptable. But powerful forces both outside the political process and even in the political process threaten to change Malaysia into a fundamentalist Islamic state. If a moderate Muslim state like Malaysia is radically changed then who is to say it cannot happen throughout the rest of the Muslim world?