Why should Islam be seen as an enemy to the world - look at the Malaysian perspective

Submitted by Dr Mustapha Kamal Shahrom (Malaysia), Jul 6, 2008 at 05:59

In Malaysia, my country of birth, Muslims and non-Muslims have been living side by side for a good half a century. We even have mosques that have been in constant usage by the Muslim community built some few centuries ago surrounded by non-Muslim shops and houses such as in Melaka, a historical city. There are also mosques, churches and temples built and used within a stone's throw betwwen them all over the country especially in the cities and towns. The Malays who make up about 60% of the country's population are tolerant and will remain tolerant towards the other communities of Chinese and Indian Malaysians, whose forefathers were immigrants from China and India respectively. They make up about 30% of the population now and enjoy a good standard of living and especially the Chinese Malaysians have been very successful at business.

It has never been a policy of a Muslim or a Muslim government to interfere with the daily lives and practices of non-Muslims in connection with their system of beliefs and customs in Malaysia. The non-Muslims are free and will always remain free forever to practise their own religion and customs and at the same time enjoy all the rights as Malaysians. No doubt there had been undercurrents about unfair treatment on them by the overall system of governance in the country but these are being addressed and corrected at a very fast pace compared to decades ago due to the very simple reason that the urban Malay Malaysians who are almost entirely Muslims are willing to accept the other communities as equals in all respect of life.

These urban Malays are those who are enjoying a better standard of living than the semi-urban and rural Malays for they were fortunate enough to have had better education and business and employment opportunities through the 50 post-independence years. It is interesting to note that many Malays are also descendants of immigrants from Indonesia, Arabian peninsular and region, Indian Muslims and Chinese Muslims and that they have been in Malaysia only a few generations earlier than the Chinese and Indian Malaysians. So why the fuss about who is indigenous and who is not, a question which does not attract attention anymore in modernising Malaysia. If anything such attitude is frowned upon by the politically and economically active younger set.

Why mosques have been allowed to be torn down forcefully in India and China is difficult to understand but I am sure this is not a general rule in these two countries too. If one can say that this is a very bad example of inter-community relationship between citizens of any country modern and progressing it can only happen as a result of political exigency of particular groups questing for power and dominance over others in such a country.

In Malaysia we do not resort to such regretable actions but we go to the ballot boxes to express our concerns, period. For we have the general elections normally held every four to five years to decide on who and who to govern the country, as a result of which all communities are well represented in parliament and Malaysia has some twenty different ethnic groups.

Still we call Malaysia an Islamic State, a state that holds total responsibility on its citizens whether they are Muslims or otherwise, for we have enshrined in our constitution since 1957, the year we secured our independence from British rule, the basics of freedom of practice of religion and speech and for all Malaysians to lead a peaceful way of life as they wishes under the complete protection of the rulers and law and order. If the world is witnessing the rumblings and chatterings in our political system at the present moment, it is because Malaysians are expressing themselves freely and bravely and they must be allowed to do so in a pluralistic, democratic, modern and progressive country like Malaysia for they aspire to make Malaysia fully developed nation in the near future.

Such aspiration can be achieved as all Malaysians respect the position of Islam as the official religion of the Malaysian state, the traditional Malay rulers or sultans who are the leaders of Islam and the heads of the nine sub-states out of fourteen (the other five are headed by governors for they never had sultans) and the National Language, which is the unifying language for all Malaysians although English is widely used at all levels of society. Great emphasis is placed on education and training to ensure competitiveness of Malaysians in the world scene.

Such is the system of Islam in governance adopted and practised in Malaysia which had brought a fair degree of success for the country and its people for the last fifty years. Islam shold not be seen as the enemy of the world, as Islam has succeeded in bringing peace and progress to Malaysia and isn't Malaysia a mini-world considering that it has a very multi-racial and multi-religious environment for so long?

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