|  All such moves are part of a larger pattern.
Tan Yi Min was brought to Penang High Court on Monday wrapped in a tudung. Her convert mother Fatimah Foong Abdullah had put the seven-year-old Chinese child in Malay attire and Muslim head covering, reported the China Press.
When Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak attended the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur's Christmas tea party, his aides reportedly instructed the Catholic church officials to remove crucifixes in the vicinity. Another directive was that no hymns were to be sung.
These precautions follow on the heels of a statement by the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikim) that Islam rejects any claim “that all religions are equally true and equally good”.
In just this week alone, there was the crackdown on Shiites and the announcement by the Sabah faith rehabilitation centre of its plans to detain 'apostates' (affecting non-Malay natives). Outdoing Sabah, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) proposed a quarantine centre where 'deviants' are, like ancient lepers, to be separated from other detainees.
All such developments are part of a larger pattern. On Dec 14, 'Membanteras Gerakan Pluralisme Agama dan Permurtadan Ummah' (Eradicating the religious pluralism movement and the apostasy of the ummah) was discussed at the Federal Territory mosque in Jalan Duta. The panel featured Islamic scholars from IIU, UKM and the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (Istac).
According to news reports, the above event by Muafakat was supported by heavyweights of the religious establishment, namely government agencies such as Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Jakim), Jais, Federal Territory Mufti Department, federal Islamic missionary foundation (Yadim) and the Information Ministry's Special Affairs Department (Jasa).
Endorsing the panel finding that only Islam possesses “the perfect and complete revelation” are Muslim civil society - Allied Coordinating Committee of Islamic NGOs (better known by its acronym Accin, an organisation registered under the Societies Act) and the Majlis Pemuafakatan Badan Amal Islam Wilayah Persekutuan.
The National Fatwa Council, meeting early this month, had unanimously determined that “the action of non-Muslim political leaders arbitrarily using Islamic holy text, including the al-Quran, that stray from the real meaning [of the idioms and verses] at political ceramah does not reflect sincerity in learning Islam. Therefore, such action can bring about [a situation of] continued insult to the sacredness of Islam, particularly the al-Quran if allowed to persist”.
Evidently, the antics of certain Pakatan colleagues of the surau-hopping MP has not escaped the attention of the council special committee. The Mufti Department in collaboration with Jakim earlier this year laid out a strategic five-year (2010-2014) plan to strengthen and empower the fatwa institution. If they succeed in getting more teeth, one Malaysian-First-caliph wannabe will likely be the first to get bitten.
No coerced conversion
Staunchly secular Singapore has handled race relations and religious differences much better. Their last religious riot was in 1950 over the re-conversion of Maria Hertogh (Muslim name Nadra, also spelt Natrah).
SR Nathan is Singapore president. Prof S Jayakumar is senior minister (he was deputy prime minister until 2009), Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Finance Minister), Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports) and K Shanmugam (Minister for Home Affairs/Law). They have not been asked to convert to Taoism to qualify as Ministers although Singapore is predominantly Chinese and upholds 'Asian values' (read: Confucianism).
In Malaysia, where Islamic values are heavily promoted by DAP and its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, it is quite natural for the PAS mursyidul am and other party leaders to state that Lim Kit Siang will necessarily convert to Islam if he harbours any hope of becoming deputy PM.
On a separate note, Petronas' first non-Malay director (non-executive) is Omar Mustapha Ong.
Global indices
According to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index this year, the most corruption-free country in the world is Singapore, tying for first place with Denmark and New Zealand.
No Muslim country features in the Top 10. The sole Muslim country ranking in the Top 20 is Qatar at 19.
The birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia, is placed at 50; Indonesia 110, Pakistan 143 and Iran 146. The rest of the Muslim countries are languishing in the bottom quarter such as Bangladesh 134, Libya and Yemen at 146, Tajikistan 154, Kyrgyzstan 164, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan 172. Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia fill the bottom rungs (172-178).
Chinese countries do better: Hong Kong at 13th spot and Taiwan 33rd. Even communist China, ostensibly godless, is middle of the range at 78 and a hundred spots above the clutch of countries under Islamic rule.
For the record, Malaysia is ranked 56. So much for 'amar makruf nahi mungkar'.
An annual survey by Freedom House measures levels of freedom. This year, 78 percent of the Middle East and North Africa (read: Muslim countries) were found to be 'Not Free', and 17 percent 'Partly Free'. The only free country in the Middle East is Israel.
Freedom House gave Israel top marks (1 point) for the political rights of her citizens and 2 points for their civil liberties. Malaysia got low marks (4 points) for our rakyat's political rights and 4 points for civil liberties. We are categorised a 'Partly Free' country.
Saudi Arabia got the lowest possible marks (7 points) for political rights and 6 points for civil liberties, and is a 'Not Free' country.
Stressing separation
'Malaysia and the Club of Doom - the Collapse of the Islamic Countries' is a book written by Syed Akbar Ali, pro-tem president of Bloggers for Malaysia. In his 2006 book, he cited a United Nations Development Programme 2004 report saying the vast majority of Arab countries are 'failed states' which lack freedom and good governance, suffer acute corruption, marginalise women and minorities as well as mired in crises of legitimacy.
Among the key failure factors are “domination by a restrictive religion”. In Malaysia, the repressive situation affects not only adherents of minority religions but also Muslims who are not ahli sunnah wal-jamaah (the sole school of Islam sanctioned by Malaysia).
Syed Akbar tells how “a friend who converted to Islam recalls when he sacrificed a cow for the Hari Raya Haji, he was told that he could not share any of the meat with his own non-Muslim relatives. Stuck with a lot of meat and no Muslim relatives, he ended up just giving it away to people standing next to him” ('Club of Doom', p.115).
Do read the blog of PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi (left), who aside from pronouncing many prohibitions (he has compiled a long haram list), similarly preaches that non-Muslims are 'kafir', supports a Quranic verse that exhorts Muslims not to take kafirs as their close friends (Dec 2, 2010), and most recently proposes that police brutality can be curbed by the establishment of a 'religious corps'.
On the other hand, Syed Akbar has this to say about our tiny neighbour: “The Singaporeans have done something that none of the Islamic countries will ever do … . They have provided a mechanism [Group Representative Constituency] where despite the overwhelming power of the Chinese majority, they have provided an avenue for the minority voice to be also heard”. ('Club of Doom', p.187)
Chua Soi Lek found Syed Akbar's book worth quoting. In August, Chua reiterated the book's general finding that many leaders of Muslim countries are “fundamentalists” and “unable to cope with the fast development in the world”. This was reported by the Malaysian Insider in its story 'Soi Lek fires broadside at Umno, PAS'.
According to the Insider report, Chua said the book inferred that Muslim-majority countries were less democratic because they formulated policy based on religion. “Although these countries have cabinets and elections, they also have the Council of Muslim Elders, which enjoys absolute power to override the decisions or policies made by the government.”
Note that Chua (right) is talking about today, the 21st century. But trust Lim Guan Eng to showboat his newly-minted Islamic credentials and rubbishing Chua with how Islam “was a centre of learning, justice, and excellence under the rule of Umar Abdul Aziz”.
Since Caliph Umar ruled between 717 and 720 CE, one wonders if Lim intends to import camels to Penang as his mode of chief ministerial transportation, emulating his idol.
Lim vs Chua
In the same Insider article of Aug 6, Chua [quoting Syed Akbar's book] pointed out that although “Muslim nations made up 22 percent of the world population, they only contribute 5 percent to the global GDP.” Mostly oil.
To which Malaysiakini reported that “Lim urged Chua to learn more about the history of Islamic civilisation, whose global empires had not only contributed breathtaking art and architecture, but also the introduction of numbers, algebra and astronomy.”
Lim refers to a bygone era of Arabic astronomers using sundials and astrolabes when today the non-Muslims have launched observatories into outer space. He also shifts the ground to olden history when Chua was referencing present-day statistics. As such, it won't be altogether surprising if Lim heartily supports the ground-shifting by our school world history syllabus with its over-emphasis on Islam and Islamic civilisation.
Chua had correctly cautioned: “We notice that Umno has become more conservative to compete with PAS in getting support from the Malay community. We raise this issue because we want to let the Chinese community think about it”.
Do the minorities want to live in a full-blown Islamic state? The data on Muslim countries vis-à-vis the rest of the world were collated by reputable international monitors and not conjured up by Chua or MCA.
Evaluating the socio-economic indicators on Muslim countries, any statistician worth his salt whether in Sydney, Stockholm or Seoul would come to a conclusion closer to the one made by Chua.
Lim Guan Eng's Islamist grandstanding is devoid of intellectual integrity. From such a leader, it is only to be expected that he has had nothing at all to say about the plight of little Tan Yi Min.
HELEN ANG used to be a journalist. In future, she would like to be a practising cartoonist. But for the present, she is in the NGO circles and settling down to more serious writing and reading of social issues. |
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