A Stricter Islam Displaces Old Ways in Malaysia

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Conservative Wahhabi doctrines are redefining the way Islam is practiced; some rituals have been banned

KUALA LUMPUR—Kelana Indra Sakti is one of Malaysia’s most successful shamans. Framed testimonials from his customers hang from his office walls. In the driveway of his house he keeps a stretch Mercedes-Benz limousine given to him by a grateful client. His name, meaning “Adventurer, Heavenly Magic,” was bestowed on him by one of Malaysia’s wealthy sultans.

Lately, though, Mr. Kelana has supplemented his consultations with readings from the Quran.

“People just expect it these days, so I do it,” said the 70-year-old shaman.

Islam in Malaysia, and Southeast Asia, is taking a more conservative turn. The Muslim faith, brought here by Arab traders hundreds of years ago, has coexisted for generations with Malay customs such as shamanism, other forms of traditional medicine and the country’s sizable Buddhist, Christian and Hindu communities.

But more recently, conservative Wahhabi doctrines, often spread by Saudi-financed imams, are redefining the way Islam is practiced and, for some, eroding the tolerance for which the country has been known. » | James Hookway | Thursday, January 14, 2016

Malaysian Church Removes Publicy-layed Cross after Muslims Complain

BREITBART.COM: Residents in Taman Medan, Malaysia protested outside of a church due to the cross on top of the building, claimimg the cross is “challenging Islam.”

The protest took place during a 10am service and remained peaceful. The people believe the cross “could sway the faith of the youth” since the majority of residents are Muslim.

“After meeting with the priest, the church agreed to take down the cross by next Sunday,” announced group leader, Datuk Abdullah Abu Bakar. “If they have the authority to run, we cannot stop it. But we ask out of concern, being a Malay area, that they take down the cross.”

Church leaders removed the cross a few hours later. » | Mary Chastain | Monday, April 20, 2015

New Dark Age Alert! Malaysian Parties Chase Islamic Vote with 'Death by Stoning' Law

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Kuala Lumpur: Six months after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak stood before the United Nations and urged Muslims worldwide to be moderate in their religion, members of his own party are supporting a law that punishes adulterers with death and thieves with amputation.

Lawmakers from Mr Najib's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) joined the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) to pass Islamic criminal law, or hudud, in the opposition-held state of Kelantan.

The move has drawn criticism from other parties in their respective coalitions, while human rights groups say it's an unconstitutional step for secular Malaysia. » | Niluksi Koswanage and Liau Y-Sing | Monday, March 23, 2015

Malaysia King Says ‘Allah’ Is Only for Muslims

The 14th king of Malaysia, Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah

RUSSIA TODAY: Only Muslims can use the word Allah to refer to God, the Malaysian King has declared adding fuel to the long-running dispute and raising questions over rights of religious minorities in the country where Islam is followed by about 60 % of the population.

Intervening in the dispute for the first time, Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah urged Sunday representatives of all other communities to respect Muslims’ exclusive right in order to maintain stability and harmony in Malaysia.

“In the context of a pluralistic society, religious sensitivities especially related to Islam as the religion of the federation should be respected,” the King said in a speech, cited by Malaysian state news agency Bernama.

“Confusion and controversy can be averted if there is adherence to the provisions of the law and judicial decisions,” he added.

The term ‘Allah’ came to the language used by the nation’s dominant Malay ethnic group from Arabic and is used to describe ‘God’ by people of all faiths.

Sultan Abdul Halim, 86, is one of the nine sultans who take turns every five years to serve as head of state.

The king’s role in Malaysia is largely ceremonial and his powers are limited. However, he is considered a defender of Islam and enjoys the respect of the Muslim population. » | Published: Sunday, January 19, 2014 | Edited: Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Islamic Radicalism a Real Threat in Malaysia
RADIO AUSTRALIA: Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr has announced an exchange programme between Australia and Malaysia, which he says aims to foster moderate Islam.

Under the programme, six Australians with Islamic backgrounds will travel to Malaysia and their counterparts will visit Australia.

A prominent Islamic moderate in Malaysia has applauded the proposed programme.

Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, who's a cardio-thoracic surgeon by profession, is also director of the Islamic Renaissance Front.

He says Islamic radicalism poses a real threat to Malaysia and the region, and that some people are using it for political ends.

Presenter: Sen Lam

Speaker: Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, director of the Islamic Renaissance Front. Dr Farouk is also a cardio-thoracic surgeon at the Monash University Medical School, Malaysia (+ audio) » | Monday, November 05, 2012

Malaysia – The Islamic State
FREE MALAYSIA TODAY: A dark humour piece on a perceived puritan Islamic state which PAS is insistent on championing one day in the future.

The Muslims in this country have certainly come of age. Lovingly protected by the government against the pitfalls of sin and eternal damnation, today a growing majority of Muslims are attracted to the beautiful notion of being governed by the hudud penal code and becoming a true Islamic nation.

It is wonderful to know that a Muslim NGO has called for the banning of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s “My Name Is Khan” movie which confuses Muslims as it promotes liberal Islam and religious pluralism. It has also warned Malaysian broadcasters against airing the hit film and called for the blocking of the distribution of the film CD.

Malay right-wing group Perkasa also called for Muslims nationwide to boycott award-winning singer Jaclyn Victor for singing the Malay-language Christian song “Harapan Bangsa”.

PAS Youth has done its bit to ban Valentine’s Day, a well-known Western celebration and live concerts which promote a loose lifestyle. And now it wants to meet the King, because the MCA president refuses to apologise for purportedly insulting Islam.

PAS is also ready to hold a discussion with former Perlis mufti Prof Madya Mohd Aszri Zainul Abidin on the “Ayatollah” issue should it ever come to power.

Malay bibles have been banned in the Peninsula and the government is serious to disallow Allah’s name to be uttered by non-Muslims.

Maybe, the time is ripe for the Muslims in this country to have an Islamic state.

Umno and PAS

Umno has been instrumental in the past to Islamise this nation, and it is satisfied that Malaysia is already a thriving Islamic state. It has even planned a mandatory mosque law to build a mosque in every new housing estate.

PAS, however, feels that more should be done and that the hudud penal code be part and parcel of an Islamic state.

Both parties agree that Muslims in Malaysia are weak and open to the temptations of the world. Some form of “state control” is needed to ensure that Muslims do not breach religious etiquette or go over the line.

Weak Muslims cannot be allowed to go through life without the state monitoring their progress and to provide them spiritual guidance. » | Iskandar Dzulkarnain | Monday, November 05, 2012

The Obedient Wives Club - Malaysia

'Sacred Sex' Muslim Group Probed
NEWS 24: Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian authorities said on Thursday they were investigating whether a Muslim group violated religious laws with a morality campaign that describes the Prophet Muhammad as a role model for "sacred sex".

The group that calls itself the Obedient Wives Club is planning private talks for hundreds of its members in the campaign centred around the prophet, who is thought to have married about a dozen women in his lifetime, including widows in need of protection.

The campaign, which is scheduled to run for nearly two weeks, bears a title that calls the prophet a "role model for sacred sex" and urges members to follow his example and avoid sexual sins. » | AP | Thursday, January 26, 2012

Malaysia to Ban Sex Manual for Obedient Muslim Wives

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Malaysian authorities plan to outlaw a book about sex published by a group of Muslim women who call themselves the Obedient Wives Club and advocate subservience to husbands.

The Malay-language book titled "Islamic Sex" is not available in shops but is believed to have been read by hundreds of members of the club formed this year by a small Malaysian Islamic sect that practices polygamy.

The book contains no explicit photographs but was written by the club's 56-year-old founder to describe her experiences and opinions on marriage. It has passages on how couples should physically and spiritually approach sex, claiming that most women only satisfy ten percent of their husbands' sexual needs.

The government's Islamic affairs department studied the 115-page book and recommended banning it because it could cause confusion among Malaysia's Muslim majority about acceptable religious teachings, a Home Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Read on and comment » | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Friday, November 04, 2011

Followers of no other faith can be more sex-driven than Muslims are. It's all to do with the nature of the faith, of course. Force women to live in purdah, forbid the co-mingling of the sexes, encourage carnal pleasures (in secret, of course), and bang!, what do you get? A huge appetite for the pleasures of the flesh! – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Malaysian Muslims Rally against Proselytizing
ARAB NEWS: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Several thousand Malaysian Muslims have protested against alleged proselytizing by Christians.

The rally Saturday reflects growing racial tensions in Muslim-majority Malaysia ahead of elections expected next year.

Organizing chairman Yusri Mohamed says the rally, backed by about two dozen Islamic groups, was aimed at uniting Muslims to defend their faith. » | ASSOCIATED PRESS | Saturday, October 22, 2011

Malaysia: Explicit Islamic Sex Manual Encourages Group Sex

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The controversial Obedient Wife Club in Malaysia has spawned new outrage by producing an explicit Islamic sex manual.

The 115-page, pocket-sized guide to Islamic sex suggests that Muslim men can have sexual relations with all their wives simultaneously. Islamic teachings say a man can take up to four wives if he has the means to support them.

The Obedient Wife Club is no stranger to controversy. When it formed in June, claiming 1,000 members, one of the founders told Malaysia’s women they need to behave like a “first-class whore” in the bedroom to stop their men from straying. » | Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok | Friday, October 14, 2011

Malaysian Polygamy Club Draws Criticism

THE NEW YORK TIMES: KUALA LUMPUR — Rohaya Mohamad, 44, is an articulate, bespectacled medical doctor who studied at a university in Wales. Juhaidah Yusof, 41, is a shy Islamic studies teacher and mother of eight. Kartini Maarof, 41, is a divorce lawyer and Rubaizah Rejab, a youthful-looking 30-year-old woman, teaches Arabic at a private college.

The lives of these four women are closely entwined — they take care of each others’ children, cook for each other and share a home on weekends.

They also share a husband.

The man at the center of this matrimonial arrangement is Mohamad Ikram Ashaari, the 43-year-old stepson of Hatijah Aam, 54, a Malaysian woman who in August established a club to promote polygamy.

“Men are by nature polygamous,” said Dr. Rohaya, Mr. Ikram’s third wife, flanked by the other three women and Mr. Ikram for an interview on a recent morning. The women were dressed in ankle-length skirts, their hair covered by tudungs, the Malaysian term for headscarf. “We hear of many men having the ‘other woman,’ affairs and prostitution because for men, one woman is not enough. Polygamy is a way to overcome social ills such as this.”

The Ikhwan Polygamy Club is managed by Global Ikhwan, a company whose businesses include bread and noodle factories, a chicken-processing plant, pharmacies, cafes and supermarkets. Mr. Ikram is a director of the company. » | Liz Gooch | Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Related »

'Obedient Wife Club' Set Up to Curb Divorce

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A group of Malaysian Muslim women is to launch a new platform called The Obedient Wife Club that aims to curb social ills like divorce, domestic violence and prostitution.

Wives who sign up will be given instruction in how to "obey, serve and entertain" their husbands to promote marital harmony and cut the risk their spouses will stray or misbehave.

The club's inaugural meeting on Saturday in Kuala Lumpur will get the proceedings rolling with speeches and a show to illustrate how women can keep their husband's happy and contented.

One of the club's founders Maznah Taufik – who also set up the Polygamy Club two years ago – said much marital discord was the result of disobedient wives failing to bring joy to their husbands.

"Domestic abuse happens because wives don't obey their husband's orders," said Mrs Maznah. "A man must be responsible for his wife's wellbeing, but she must listen to her husband." She also said the group would stress that wives had to provide husbands with a fulfilling sex life to prevent them straying to prostitutes.

"To entertain their husbands is compulsory," she said. "If she doesn't do this the husband will look for another woman ... and the house will break down. » | Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok | Friday, June 03, 2011

A Malaysian Journey from Darkness
JIHAD WATCH: For most Americans and those reading this, the nation of Malaysia--the country I call home--is likely nothing more but a mysterious, distant, small and relatively unimportant land. Some of you might be familiar with Malaysia's carefully cultivated public image of being some sort of harmonious multicultural tropical paradise, which is recycled endlessly in 30-second-long television spots both here and overseas.

But for anyone who may be trying to come to grips with the grim reality that is Islam, Malaysia may be one of the most important places on the planet. That's because anyone who still, despite all the evidence, feels that there really is a moderate, progressive, tolerant and peaceful Islam, need look no further than Malaysia. Once you do, you'll be thoroughly disabused of this notion.

My own awakening to Islam is mostly a tale of ignorance and more than whiff of denial, punctuated by sudden, shattering and irreversible epiphanies. I say 'shattering' because the ideas that I embraced as I grew up--that Islam is just one religion of many, and doesn't particularly pose a threat to anyone--does not withstand anything more than a cursory examination of the facts. And as the evidence piled up and my doubts grew, those old notions I had held previously, like a sheet of plate glass, came apart under the hammer blows of truth.

The first blow to my complacency was that dark day in Lower Manhattan nearly ten years ago. Like so many others reading this, I was horrified at the televised scenes of destruction and carnage in New York and Washington. How could any rational human feel otherwise? But as the days and months passed after September 11th, I starting hearing Malaysians say, over and over, that the US Government was lying about 9-11, that it was a 'set up' and a plot against Islam. And that the Jews were really behind it, of course. As I realised how sincere these Malaysians were in these outlandish ideas, I thought, "What makes so many people in this country prone to this nonsense?" At the time, the exact answers eluded me, but my budding doubts about Islam festered. » | Anti-Jihadist | Saturday, May 28, 2011

Anwar Ibrahim’s Islamic Agenda
THE CUTTING EDGE: The list of prominent U.S. admirers of Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s former Deputy Prime Minister, on trial for corruption and sodomy, is impressive. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, former President of the World Bank James Wolfensohn, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Letters of support on his behalf praise his leadership and fight “for international justice, peace and development.” Strangely, these prominent figures fail to notice that Anwar’s fight is not for democracy, justice and peace according to Western principles. Instead, his call is for democratization “on the platform of Islam.”

It is Anwar’s constant advocacy of Islamic rule that led the Qatar-based spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf Qaradawi, to join the defenders of the Malay politician. >>> Rachel Ehrenfeld | Monday, December 13, 2010

Unmarried Malaysian Muslim Civil Servants Face Eviction from Government Housing
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Malaysian Islamic authorities have been evicting unmarried Muslim civil servants from government-owned housing if they are caught with their partners alone in a private place, according to reports.

A couple holds hands at the side of a street in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Muslims have been evicted from their homes under a campaign to rid Putrajaya of activities deemed immoral under Malaysian Islamic laws. Photograph: The Sunday Telegraph
Several Muslims have been evicted from their homes in government quarters under a campaign launched early this year to rid the country’s administrative capital Putrajaya of activities deemed immoral under Malaysian Islamic laws, the New Straits Times reported.

Che Mat Che Ali, director of the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department, said: “It may seem harsh but we want the people of Putrajaya to know that we take this matter seriously.”

He said those caught by Islamic morality police were hauled up in court and then asked to move out. >>> | Sunday, August 22, 2010

Reality Show Concludes Hunt for 'Ultimate Young Imam'
THE INDEPENDENT: An Islamic reality TV show that made its contestants counsel promiscuous teenagers and bury corpses has named a mosque prayer leader as Malaysia's top role model for young Muslims.

Producers voiced hopes yesterday of launching similar versions of Imam Muda, or "Young Leader", in other Muslim-majority countries after the Malaysian show's first season became the most-watched programme to ever air on the Islamic channel of the Astro pay-TV network.

Muhammad Asyraf Ridzuan, 26, beat Hizbur Rahman Omar Zuhdi, an Islamic schoolteacher, to win the competition late on Friday in an event broadcast nationwide from an auditorium packed with spectators who had secured the highly coveted tickets. It was the culmination of a 10-episode run to find a man whose religious devotion could inspire other Malaysian Muslims of his generation.

Ridzuan's victory earned him prizes that mixed the spiritual – a new job as prayer leader at a prestigious Kuala Lumpur mosque and an all-expenses paid pilgrimage to Mecca – with the secular, including a car, iPhone, laptop and 20,000 ringgit (£4,000) in cash. >>> Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, AP | Monday, August 02, 2010

Related articles here and here

Malaysian Islamic Courts Appoint First Women Judges
THE TIMES OF INDIA: KUALA LUMPUR: The appointment of the first two women judges to Malaysia's Islamic courts was hailed Thursday as a move to address the gender imbalance in the country's religious judiciary.

Premier Najib Razak announced the appointments, made by the king in May, as an example of the government's commitment to transforming the Sharia judiciary.

"The appointments were made to enhance justice in cases involving families and women's rights and to meet current needs," Najib was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama last week.

Islamic courts run in parallel with civil courts in this Malay Muslim-majority country but women say they face much discrimination in Islamic divorce proceedings, inheritance and child custody cases. Continue reading and comment >>> AFP | Thursday, July 08, 2010

Malaysia: The Best Mullah in the Land
THE TELEGRAPH: A Malaysian version of X factor has forsaken the world of pop to conduct a search for the nation's next religious leader.

Contestants on Young Imam chant passages from the Koran, not pop covers.

While the concept is based on the hit British and American shows, the young Malaysian men are out to prove they are the best mullah in the land.

The show, now in its third week, is fast becoming a hit in the Muslim-majority country.

The judge who delivers their fate as the lights dim and contestant stand nervously is no Simon Cowell.

Hasan Mahmood, the former grand mufti of Malaysia's national mosque, presides over the ten male contestants aged between 19 and 27.

Instead of a lucrative record deal, the winner will be given a post as an imam at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, a Haj pilgrimage to Mecca and a full scholarship to the Madinah international university in Saudi Arabia.

Just like their counterparts in the West, the Young Imam competitors are fast becoming icons to young viewers.

The show's Facebook page has over 25,000 fans, including prospective mothers-in-law looking to marry off their daughters. X factor for muslim preachers in Malaysia wows television audience >>> Barney Henderson in Kuala Lumpur | Friday, June 25, 2010

Malaysian Woman Escapes Caning Over Drinking Beer in Public
THE TELEGRAPH: A Muslim woman sentenced to be caned for drinking beer has had her punishment commuted, in a surprising turnaround for a high-profile case that raised questions about Malaysia's Islamic laws.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a mother of two, received a letter from the Pahang state Islamic department informing her that the state's sultan had decided to spare her the caning, her lawyer, Adham Jamalullail, said.

The order is likely to cool down a fiery debate over whether Islamic laws should intrude into people's private lives in the Muslim-majority country. Many people had condemned the punishment, saying it showed conservative Islamists were gaining influence over the justice system.

Mr Adham said that "as a substitution for the caning, the sultan has ordered Kartika to perform community service for three weeks." >>> | Thursday, April 01, 2010