INDONESIA & MALAYSIA: THE ISLAMONUTS ARE WINNING

Drifting Toward Extremism
Malaysia and Indonesia are known for their gentle version of Islam. So why is the mainstream worried?


By Joe Cochrane and Jonathan Kent
Newsweek International

Dec. 4, 2006 issue - The meeting of the united Malays National Organization, the ruling pro-Muslim party in Malaysia, was a shocking display of divisiveness. Some UMNO delegates at the rally, which ended Nov. 17, gave speeches that, either explicitly or in veiled terms, were racist or called for violence as a means of settling religious or political differences. One of them, Hasnoor Sidang Hussein, declared: "UMNO is willing to risk lives and bathe in blood in defense of race and religion." Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein unsheathed a keris (Malay dagger) at the meeting. Party supporters perceived the gesture as invoking Malay power and pride, but critics said the minister was pandering to racist elements in UMNO's youth wing, which Hishammuddin heads. Twenty years ago, the youth wing had displayed banners calling for the keris to be bathed in the blood of the minority Malaysian Chinese.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi disavowed the inflammatory rhetoric in his speech to the UMNO conclave, and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak suggested that the police have a word with delegates who'd used extreme language. Still, the UMNO chest-thumping makes clear that the moderate Abdullah is struggling to cope with a surge in intolerant—and in some cases extremist—behavior by his base of Malay Muslims. Earlier this year a Muslim mob disrupted a forum being held in Penang to discuss religious pluralism. Forum organizers said the mob's message was unmistakable: attempts to equate other religions with Islam in Malaysia will be met with violence. Malaysia's minority Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs—already on the short end of economic policies that favor the Malay majority—are worried. Wong Kim Kong, head of a Christian evangelical group, said in a newspaper interview after the UMNO conference that tensions among the communities were higher than they'd been in decades—partly because Muslims "feel they are being cornered" by the Western war on terror.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Drifting Toward Extremism