Some thoughts on state fundamentalism in Malaysia
For one can question the state for flawed policies and violations against human rights; but how does one do that when the state enforce or legislate in the name of religion and equates its policies and decisions with “God’s laws”?
by Mohamed Imran Taib, Projek Dialog
Things are getting bizarre.
Somehow, Ramadan is the preferred month to display more ‘religious neurosis’ in the form of an overdrive to flex one’s position and power as the “guardians of Islam”. Whatever happened to the spirit of Ramadan where one is encouraged to do greater self-introspection and seek peace within through the spiritual exercise of fasting?
Instead, we find more and more browbeating that targets everything, from those who do not observe the fast, to harassing the minority Shi’a community, to threatening Christians against the usage of the word “Allah” to refer to God, and more recently, to anyone who questions a gazetted fatwa as liable to be charged for “insulting Islam”.
In Indonesia, such aggressive behavior will be the primary forte of vigilante groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), known for their famous “sweeping” acts in Ramadan. But who needs the FPI when you have state mechanisms to enforce your zeal to earn the badge of being the “defenders of God” and the “gatekeepers of Islam”?
Such is the tragic consequent of decades of state-led ideology of “Islamization” in Malaysia.
Unfortunately, “Islamization” does not mean infusing Muslims with the sublime and universal values of Islam. Rather, it is a form of marriage between the ruling party UMNO’s desire to maintain power, and the Muslim fundamentalists’ desire to enforce their ideology through a take-over of state mechanisms and institutions.
Democracy compromised
That marriage spells a disaster to development of democracy in Malaysia. State authoritarianism has, ever since, been given a powerful tool to control the masses: religion.
For one can question the state for flawed policies and violations against human rights; but how does one do that when the state enforce or legislate in the name of religion and equates its policies and decisions with “God’s laws”? For ordinary Muslims, legal drafts and bills pertaining to religious life are not enacted by elected parliamentarians through the act of parliament; but are primarily “God’s laws” that cannot and should not be questioned.
