Malaysia Moves to Rein In Radical Islamic Fundamentalism
International Herald Tribune
October 9, 1996
Michael Richardson

Malaysia is acting to curb radical Islamic fundamentalism and strengthen the modern form of the religion advocated by the government of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad.

In doing so, it has reassured the country's non-Muslim minorities, which make up about 40 percent of the population of 19 million, that they will not be subject Islamic law.

By threatening to use the federal government's power to take over the administration of a state that violates the constitution, Mr. Mahathir forced Kelantan — the only one of Malaysia's 13 states not under the control of his governing coalition — to suspend its plan to carry out harsh Islamic laws similar to those imposed by the triumphant Taleban fundamentalist militia in Afghanistan.

The laws proposed for Muslims in Kelantan prescribed stoning to death for adultery, amputation of hands for theft and 40 lashes of the cane for drinking liquor.

Nuraini Othman, a Malaysian university lecturer in sociology, said that in making Kelantan shelve the Islamic code last week, Mr. Mahathir had cited the federal government's authority over criminal law under the constitution.

She said that the outcome was important because the legal code proposed by Kelantan was "the hallmark of an Islamic state" and would have caused widespread concern among non-Muslims, as well as moderate Muslims, in Malaysia.

While Islam is the country's official religion, non-Muslims are guaranteed freedom of worship under the constitution.

Mr. Mahathir wants to make Islam compatible with Malaysia's rapid economic growth and modernization, while preserving harmony between majority Malays, nearly all of whom are Muslims, and minority groups, chiefly non-Muslim Chinese and Indians.

He told an international conference of Muslim missionaries last month that over the centuries, Muslims had lost their skills, knowledge and strength — and also the respect for Islam by non-Muslims.

As a result, Muslim countries today were "totally weak, dependent upon and often subservient to the big powers," he said.

To regain the world's respect, Mr. Mahathir said, Muslims must show that Islam was not "an obstacle to worldly progress, skillful administration, development, wealth generated by skills in industry and commerce, and has the strength to defend those in need of help, be they Muslim or otherwise."

The Malaysian government has warned that it will use the Internal Security Act to check the spread of Shiite belief, which it says could cause serious divisions among Muslims in the country.

The act allows detention without trial for up to two years with subsequent extensions.

Followers of Sunnism and Shiism, the two main branches of Islam, have frequently been at odds, and sometimes at war, with each another in various parts of the world. The Malaysian government has declared Sunni Islam as the official faith of Muslims in Malaysia.

Abdul Hamid Othman, a senior official in the prime minister's department, said that Malaysia was determined to avoid the kind of sectarian conflict that had weakened Pakistan, Iraq and Lebanon, where people "fought among themselves because of differing beliefs."

The government has also said that Muslim religious courts that administer sharia law in Malaysia will be reorganized to improve their administrations and remove "weaknesses."

Malaysia's laws are secular except for those relating to such matters as Muslim marriage, divorce, custody of children and other aspects of personal behavior or family life that fall under the authority of the states through sharia courts.

Chandra Muzaffar, a Malaysian political scientist and Muslim scholar, said that streamlining was needed to harmonize the sharia law in the different states and strengthen the reformist trend of Islam in Malaysia.

Mr. Mahathir said that modern Muslims must be prepared to reinterpret the Koran and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed.

"Only when Islam is interpreted so as to be relevant in a world which is so different from what it was 1,400 years ago," he said, "can Islam be regarded as a religion for all ages.

Copyright © 2006 The International Herald Tribune