Islam in Malaysia

When Robert Zoellick, the US deputy secretary of state recently described Malaysia as a potential model for fledgling democratic regimes in other Muslim lands such as Iraq and Palestine, he was not presumably referring to its Islamic police. Earlier this year officers of Kuala Lumpur’s (KL) religious department raided a nightclub, arrested around 100 patrons for ungodly acts such as drinking alcohol and dressing immodestly and sent them off in paddy wagons. The episode, though unusual, shows how many Islamic strictures remain on the books - and how uncomfortable this makes many Malaysians.

"We are a very moderate country", the prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, recently said. On the whole he is right. Although the Muslims are the majority and Islam is the official religion, large Christian, Buddhist, Hindu minorities are free to worship as they please. The government, which has many non-Muslims tends to concentrate on the economy rather then matters of morality. KL is a cosmopolitan and tolerant place where the sexes mingle freely. Profane items such as pork and alcohol are in plentiful supply.

Yet religion remains an awkward subject in Malaysia. Many Malay Muslims have lived in the area and practiced Islam for centuries. During the colonial period though large numbers of Chinese and Indians, non-Muslims mostly, settled in the country. The authors of the constitution tried to strike a balance between Malays, who felt they and their religion (Islam) should enjoy pre-eminence in their homeland, and minorities who felt they would become second-class citizens. The result was that Islam is accorded special status, Muslims can proselytise freely (convert non-Muslims to Islam), while non-Muslims cannot convert Muslims to other faiths. Muslims have there own Islamic court system to adjudicate in matters of personal law, while non-Muslims have the normal secular court system.

Non-Muslims argue that the government spends too much money on building mosques and promoting Islam. They also claim that the Malays who dominate the bureaucracy sometimes make life difficult for them, by, for example, withholding permits to open a temple. In 2003 over-zealous officials tried to ban a translation of the Bible into an indigenous language of eastern Malaysia - although Mr Badawi nullified the order a few weeks later.

There are however many Muslim critics of the country's Islamic justice system. Muslim women were very upset in 2002 when the state government of Perlis made it easier for Muslim men to take a second wife, by scrapping the rule requiring the first's consent. State governments (who have authority on matters of religion) have expanded the scope of Muslim personal law beyond questions of marriage and inheritance; in order to carry favour in Islamically minded voters. Most have banned alcohol and other forms of "indecent behaviour".

It was on the basis of such a law that KL's religious officers raided Zouk nightclub in January and arrested the Muslim patrons while allowing the non-Muslims to go free. The well-to-do Muslims, unaccustomed to Government interference in their private lives kicked up a fuss as did the local media. Amid the furore Muslims bought out all types of laws that they were not happy with; Muslims were banned from expressing deviant views, contradicting religious leaders and even smoking. They said that all these laws needed to be reviewed and the laws that infringed on freedom of speech should be scrapped.

The government's response has been ambiguous. It did issue new regulations trimming the powers of the religious police. It is also encouraging Malaysia's 14 states to adopt a uniform Islamic code. In general though the ruling United Malays National Organisation is reluctant to hand the opposition, Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) ammunition to denounce it as un-Islamic. An adviser to the Prime Minister, Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh cannot bring himself to reject outright the idea of an Islamic criminal code. He argues that the time is not right.

The prime minister, Mr Badawi, is trying to shift the focus of the debate by promoting an alternative vision of Islam, which he calls "Islam Hadhari", or civilisational Islam. It stresses the moral value of education, economic development, and protection of minorities, as a counterweight to PAS's emphasis on dogma. "You can be cosmopolitan and Islamic at the same time", says Mr Wan Farid. He also says that Muslims who stray from the faith should be brought into line by persuasion rather than coercion.

Civil liberty groups however dismiss "Islam Hadhari", saying that it is trying to confuse the issue. "What about those Muslims who do not want to be brought back into line", says Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a lawyer. He points to several cases were Muslims want to convert to other faiths. Islamic courts cast these people as apostates and send them to rehabilitation camps. The civil courts however have avoided ruling on the issue - seeing that it is too controversial an issue for judges or politicians - even in model Malaysia.
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