After warning on Islamic State, Dr M trains sights on local clerics
(Malay Mail Online) – The Muslim clergy in Malaysia is allowing the appeal of the Islamic State to take hold by keeping silent even as more Malaysians are drawn towards the jihadist movement, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.
Claiming local youths were susceptible to the wiles of the Islamic State jihadist movement due to a weak religious understanding, the former prime minister criticised the ulama, or Muslim clerics, for failing to state clearly their stand on the violence perpetrated by the group.
“It is believed that some even give their blessings for Malaysian volunteers going to kill Muslims who they claim do not believe in Islam,” he wrote on his personal blog today.
“Some believe they are engaged in jihad by killing those of different beliefs and Islamic denominations even though they pray to the same God and profess Allah to be only one and Muhammad is his Prophet.”
The nation’s longest-serving prime minister complained that there is no effort to study and debate the allegations of apostasy bandied about by the jihadists or clear fatwa (religious edicts) issued by clerics who did not otherwise have an agenda.
Again pointing to existing religious differences between the Sunni and Shiah schools of Islam that exist here, Dr Mahathir warned that allowing the spread of the ideology propagated by the Islamic State risks engendering further enmity among Muslims here.
“This may escalate to hostility and violence. Do not think this cannot happen in this fortunate country,” he added.
“The call to jihad is a siren song. In a situation where Muslims are shallow in their knowledge of Islam, this call will easily be accepted. They easily believe they will become martyrs when they are killed.”
Dr Mahathir previously raised the alarm over the possibility that the Islamic State militancy in the Middle East may be replicated here by fighters returning from the violence now happening in Syria and Iraq.
Yesterday, the Bloomberg news service reported that as many as 40 Malaysians are currently fighting for the Islamic State in Syria, with some saying that the jihad was mandated by the Prophet Muhammad.
The total number of Southeast Asians fighting alongside Islamic State is estimated by governments and police to be a few hundred. The violence and brutality committed by terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria poses a threat to the Middle East and, if left unchecked, the world, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said in a statement on September 27.
Malaysians and Indonesians fighting for the IS have also reportedly banded together over their common language and are said to be planning to expand their numbers to form a “katibah”, a military unit of 100 men roughly equivalent to a company.
Malaysia has designated IS a terrorist group. The organisation was formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
On August 11 this year, Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported that Malaysian police have revealed local jihadists who joined IS are now training their sights on Putrajaya.
A senior Malaysian police official was reported as saying that suspected jihadists had planned attacks on entertainment venues in Kuala Lumpur and a Carlsberg factory in Petaling Jaya.
