Islamic reformation wave that took Malaysia off track

The recitation of the Qunut Nazilah in the Dewan Rakyat by members of opposition parties PAS and Bersatu in July marked a serious and terrible deformation of the Malaysia we began with in 1963.

The Qunut Nazilah is meant only for Muslims at war with those declared by a head of state as enemies of the religion, but has now been used against not only Malaysian Muslims but also the non-Muslims in the ruling government.

That is the tragedy of 44 years of the Islamic Reformation movement that began in the 1980s. As one who has lived through those times and participated in the movement of the 1980s, I can only say that its promises brought about an unexpected Malay transformation which has now resulted in a Malaysian deformation.

When it began, the Islamic Reformation promised social, political and spiritual transformation.

First, it promised that Islam will transcend ritual and cultural aspects and become a social movement that ensures justice for all human beings.

In Malaysia, our people were divided by race and an unhealthy racial socialization, which the movement promised to eliminate by the word of God that recognizes all those who perform good deeds, regardless of religion.

The second thing was that the Islamic Reformation promised to transform education into a sustainable and prosperous economic benefit by treating the environment as a precious gift. It also promised to transform the unity and intellectualization of knowledge into a science of spirituality and awakening.

Third, the Islamic Reformation promised to make politics a most responsible and sacred calling for those who fear God and are conscious of all sins of corruption, vanity and untold wealth that destroy the very soul of man.

Finally, it sought to uphold Islam’s promises to accord dignity in the eyes of God to all of humanity.

Rise of Islamic organisations

All these ideals gave rise to entities such as Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim), Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia (Ikram, at the time known as JIM) and involved PAS, which between 1980 and 1990 sought to reform the Malays and Malaysia into a compassionate, intellectual and wise society.

Thus between 1990 to 1998, the Malays went through an interesting transformation. Mosques began to be filled. Young women began to wear the tudung and men sported Anwar’s famous Muslim-look complete with glasses and a goatee.

The Jamaah Tabligh and Al-Arqam rose to transform overnight the Muslim dress code to incorporate the jubah, and its music and recreation. Every kenduri or wedding receptions would carry the melodious sound of religious songs or nasyid, led by the Al-Arqam group Nadamurni. That group then gave rise to the famous Raihan, Brothers and many more.

The Jamaah Tabligh enticed the young and old to go on a 40-day missionary journey, dressed like Indians or Afghans, complete with turban.

These groups would move from mosque to mosque, inviting Malays to come back to the fold of Islam. At night, the mosque would be filled with Malays performing the Tahadjud at 2am and crying softly into the morning to hear the Bayan or lecture-reminder.

The Islamic schools of Abim and Ikram mushroomed in great numbers with an educational curriculum that isolated their youth from non-Muslims. Just as the Chinese vernacular schools isolated their children from the Malays, these Abim and Ikram schools totally isolated Malays from others.

Two massive universities – the International Islamic University and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia – came up, bringing about the Islamization of knowledge.

People like Dr Badrul Amin, Hassan Ali and Fadilah Kamsah became icons of motivational Islamic lectures and were treated like rock stars.

The Anwar influence

In politics, Anwar transformed Umno to rival PAS and turned the political party into a Malay-Islamic wave of politics. Mahathir did not like what he saw as Anwar’s popularity grew, and he struck mercilessly seeking to deliver a killing blow to Anwar’s career. Or so I thought.

The years 1998 to 2010 were a dark time for the Malay transformation.

The icons of the Islamic Reformation were hunted and imprinted by Mahathir. The Islamic Reformation that had just begun to flower into the Malay transformation was halted abruptly just as the politics of democracy and civil resistance began to take shape.

The Malay transformation stopped, but a new wave of Malaysian transformation had begun. PAS and DAP joined hands and took center stage, and for once the people and the opposition were united against the mafia-like manner in which Umno and Barisan Nasional ran the country.

Sensing imminent defeat at the 2018 election, Najib invited PAS to join Umno, secretly at first, but he was fooling no one. PAS began to jettison all the progressive Islamists allied with Anwar and began the first stage of deforming Malaysia with a Taliban-like approach to religion.

Luck was on PAS’s side as a wave of western-educated Malays began to retire in the wake of the New Economic Policy, and were now seeking God to get a pass into heaven.

Ustazes were suddenly in high demand. Almost all middle-class households had their own personal ustaz tuition teacher to teach retirees how to recite the Quran and pray the prayers that were counted the most. These ustazes also imparted the idea of ​​protecting Islam from others that would pollute the religion.

The turning point

For me, the Malaysia deformation phase began with a call by Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa in 2014 for Malay-language Bibles to be burnt. That signaled an important shift from Islam that was tolerant of all faiths and races.

Where once Umno and Mahathir used to scare the Malays by making the Chinese and DAP as bogeymen, now Umno and PAS began to redefine the fight by treating non-Muslims as enemies of Islam.

Hadi Awang began to insult others by calling them ‘”animals”. He also accused them of being corruptible, even though the great corruption cases Muslims at every level, the highest one being a former prime minister.

PAS even justified corruption as necessary in some cases. The recitation of the Qunut Nazilah has completed the deformation of Malaysia by seeking to declare non-Muslims and Muslims who work with the likes of DAP as the enemies of Islam.

If MIC, MCA and Gerakan have non-Muslims working with PAS, that would be OK because they will all have to succumb to PAS’s definition of “dhimmi” – second class citizens under the absolute authority of Muslim politicians.

That is my personal reading of non-Muslims working with the so-called “Islamic” party.

Why did the Islamic Reformation fail to produce a full transformation of Malays and Malaysia? Was it wrong to introduce Islam into modern politics? I will deal with all these in another article, God willing.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.