Malaysiakini: COMMENT Sometime last year the influential - in the American context - Brookings Institution published two articles that highlight the problem with the Umno state’s manipulation of Islam in this country. I referenced the first article in my previous piece. The second by James Chin, titled, ‘Malaysia: Clear and present danger from the Islamic State’, correctly points out the sub rosa agenda of committed Islamists to subvert the idea of a post-Merdeka Malaysia.

He writes: “The use of political Islam is a deliberate move by a group of committed Islamists hidden in the highest level of the Malaysian state and bureaucracy to create a Malay-Islamic state, not a mere theocratic state. This ideology is unique and separate from the caliphate project pursued by IS.
“In the Malaysian version of the Malay-Islamic state, Sunni Islam’s supremacy is indivisible from ethnicity, i.e. the Malay race. In other words, the unique Malaysian brand of Sunni Islamic supremacy is fused with intolerant Malay nationalism.

This highly committed group is trying to build the world’s only Islamic state where Islam and one particular ethnic group are one and the same.” Umno friends of mine tell me that the culture of Umno is defined by two sets of tensions. The first are the fast fading bureaucrats who carry out their duties as if they exist in a secular country only to run into the machinations of the theocrats who view everything through a Malaysian Saudi-influenced Islam lens. This is why the best of secular intentions are thwarted by religious mendacity.

These tensions are magnified by the internal Umno conflict between Umno chieftains scrambling for power by waging war against their proxies. And let us not forget that each governmental agency has protected fiefdoms whose main objective is to service the gravy train. For decades under the long Umno watch, infiltrators who desire an Islamic state as defined by James Chin, have worked to shape a Malay polity comprised of the locals, constitutionally-created Malays and a brand of Sunni Islam that would maintain a political hegemon in power indefinitely. This notion of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ does not exist in an Umno vacuum. This was a concept that was endorsed by non-Malay plutocrats and for some time, the majority of the Malaysians voting demographic. The so-called social contract was the seed of our destruction as a unified multiracial/ethnic polity.

This is our history, or as Napoleon would argue, our lies agreed upon - the idea that an official religion would act as carrot and stick to a young democracy. This is how a so-called Islamic state deals with the issue of Islamic terrorism. An Islamic sect masquerading as a democratic political party has the audacity to make the following call: "In fighting for the religion and implementing Islam, Muslims cannot take the easy way out. Those who want quick victories will act aggressively and ignore all that is prohibited by Islam. This will only paint a wrong picture of Islam."  In other words, like most so-called Islamic parties the world over, which pay lip service to democratic principles, the end goal of such parties is to form an Islamic state by democratic means and then abandoning the concept when their Islamic paradise has been achieved.

And some Malaysians - friends of mine, good and honest people - advocated ‘PAS for all’ when they should have been paying attention to the warning signs that were right in front of their eyes. Similarly, when the Pahang mufti who advocated genocide then backtracked said that, “We are not forcing but I call on non-Muslims to convert to Islam to be safe in the afterlife and for unity in Malaysia. There will be no more chaos and we can focus on development," which is the canard that Muslims shove down each other’s throats in attempt at solidarity.

Conquest by any other means

More Muslims kill one another than the combined agenda of Western imperialism or neo-imperialism. More Muslims kill one another for religious reasons, then non-Muslims killing Muslims on religious grounds. More Muslims enslave other Muslims - especially in IS-controlled territories - and Saudi Arabia than anywhere else in the world. An example of Islamic solidarity is the recent attack in three Saudi cities, all based on religious imperatives and the undeclared war on the House of Saud by Islamic militants, regional power players or just about any Muslim with a grudge against the rulers of the kingdom.

Closer to home, Islamic splinter group Amanah, which have a long way to go when it comes to convincing right-thinking Malaysians - and not just DAP supporters - that they have nothing in common with PAS, have felt the brunt of Islamic group think which they encouraged all these decades. Party vice-president Mujahid Yusof Rawa last year warned that, “Among the extremist ideology that infects Malaysia is the idea of absolute truth thus allowing labels such as ‘munafik’ and accusing fellow Muslims with different thinking as heathens."

He was targeting his former brethren of PAS but also acknowledging the complicity of the Umno state so dependent on this Islamic sect for political survival - “The authorities seem indifferent so far. And these attacks, dare I say that it, seem like a planned, concerted effort against our members of Amanah.” And the Pahang mufti’s Hari Raya message? "As the mufti, I speak on the basis of Islam, the religion of Allah which has to be spread worldwide. I hope that in this holy month of Ramadan, we can all live in harmony.” In other words, conquest by any other means, well maybe by the exact means of groups like IS. This, of course, will not bring peace and stability, certainly not with Muslims and most definitely not with non-Muslims.

The fact that Putrajaya insists on spinning for this bigot and has no plans to make fundamental changes to the system with regards to Islam is indicative that not only will IS continue to plague Malaysia but their attacks will only get more brazen and sustained. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak who leads a kleptocratic regime has the temerity to claim, “this is not Islam”. How then is Islam defined in Malaysia? In one of my numerous articles about the state of Islam in this country, I wrote, “There is nothing moderate about the Islam practiced in this country. Muslims are brainwashed by government agencies.”

Muslims are at the mercy of state religious departments. Muslims are subjected to the whims of the syariah courts. Of course, this is also class dialectic. Muslims elites do not face the kind of Islamic music that their average, less economically advantaged brethren get. This so-called Islamic country has:

1) Not only been host for terrorists who carry out acts of violence in the name of Islam, we have also had native sons who carry out terrorists acts in foreign lands.
2) We have played host to foreign Islamic preachers who mock other religions.
3) A security apparatus that has refused to carry out secular law when it comes to judgments from civil courts.
4) Unlawful religious conversions by governmental agencies.
5) Umno propaganda organs inciting religious hatred.
6) Destruction of places of worship.
7) Government institutions carrying courses using hate speech against non-Muslims.
8) Anti-Western and anti-Semitic rhetoric that is sanctioned by the government.

Meanwhile, Amanah leader Mujahid said, “Violence is not part of any religion as violence is without religion and it does not represent Islam,” which is wrong in a historical sense and of course absurd when it comes to the dogma of the Abrahamic faiths. But my question is, has Amanah put out any fatwas condemning Islamic extremism? Similarly, when social activist Marina Mahathir said that Islamic factions created IS, the same goes for every Malaysian who believes that Islam should have a free rein for pragmatic reasons or refuse to speak up when Islam intrudes on the lives on Malaysians, regardless if they are Muslims or not. This is what the religious bigots like the Pahang mufti fear and the need for the “interference” rhetoric.

Perhaps my Weltanschauung has been defined by years of service to the state and therefore I, and perhaps many others, see the need for those “rough men” who stand ready to do violence on our behalf, but I approve of the Salman Rushdie strategy when it comes to fundamentalists and the war they wage:  “The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong.

“We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them. “How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorised. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.” For many people, Malaysia is a paradise. It does not need Islam to make it so. Yesterday: Cops, explosives and Islam in Malaysia