Islamic reform wave that led Malaysia astray

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

The Qunut Nazilah is only meant for Muslims who are at war with people who have been declared enemies of the religion by a head of state. However, today the Qunut Nazilah is not only used against Malay Muslims but also against non-Muslims in the ruling government.

That is the tragedy of 44 years of the Islamic Reform Movement that began in the 1980s. As someone who lived through that era and participated in the 1980s movement, I can only say that its promises brought about an unexpected Malaysian transformation that has now resulted in Malaysian deformation.

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

First, it promised that Islam would go beyond ritual and cultural aspects and become a social movement that would ensure justice for all people.

In Malaysia, our people were divided on the basis of race and unhealthy racial socialization. The movement promised to end this with the word of God, which recognizes all who do good deeds, regardless of religion.

The second was that the Islamic Reformation promised to transform education into a sustainable and prosperous economic asset 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.

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

Finally, they wanted to fulfill Islam’s promise to give all of humanity dignity in the eyes of God.

Rise of Islamic organizations

All these ideals led to the formation of organisations such as Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim), Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia (Ikram, then known as JIM) and PAS, which between 1980 and 1990 sought to reform the Malays and Malaysia into a compassionate, intellectual and wise society.

Thus, between 1990 and 1998, the Malays underwent an interesting transformation. Mosques began to fill up. Young women began to wear the tudung, and men adopted Anwar’s famous Muslim look, complete with glasses and a goatee.

The Jamaah Tabligh and Al-Arqam rose up and transformed the Islamic dress code overnight to incorporate the jubah, and its accompanying music and recreation. Every kenduri or wedding reception 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 invited young and old to join them on a 40-day missionary journey, dressed as Indians or Afghans, complete with turban.

These groups went from mosque to mosque inviting Malays to return to Islam. At night the mosque was filled with Malays performing Tahadjud at 2am and weeping softly until morning to hear the Bayan or reading reminder.

The Islamic schools of Abim and Ikram sprang up like mushrooms with a curriculum that isolated their children from non-Muslims. Just as the Chinese vernacular schools isolated their children from the Malays, these Abim and Ikram schools completely isolated the Malays from others.

Two huge universities emerged, the International Islamic University and the Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, which brought 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 influence of Anwar

In politics, Anwar transformed Umno into a 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 to deal a death blow to Anwar’s career. Or so he thought.

The years 1998 to 2010 were a dark period for Malaysia’s transformation.

The icons of the Islamic Reformation were hunted down and imprisoned by Mahathir. The Islamic Reformation that had just begun to blossom in the Malay transformation was abruptly stopped just as the politics of democracy and civil resistance were beginning to take shape.

The Malaysian transformation stopped, but a new wave of Malaysian transformation had begun. PAS and DAP joined forces and took the lead, and for once the people and the opposition were united against the mafia-like way in which Umno and Barisan Nasional were ruling the country.

Sensing impending defeat in the 2018 elections, Najib invited PAS to join Umno, secretly at first, but he fooled no one. PAS began dumping all the progressive Islamists who were Anwar’s allies and began the first phase of reshaping Malaysia with a Taliban-style approach to religion.

Luck was on the side of the PAS, as a wave of Western-educated Malays began to retreat as a result of the New Economic Policy, now seeking a ticket to heaven from God.

Ustazes were suddenly in high demand. Almost all middle-class households had their own personal ustaze teacher to teach pensioners how to recite the Qur’an and pray the prayers that were most important. These ustazes also gave the idea of ​​protecting Islam from others who would pollute the religion.

The turningpoint

For me, Malaysia’s deformation phase began with a call by Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa in 2014 to burn Malay Bibles. That was a major shift from Islam that was tolerant of all faiths and races.

Where Umno and Mahathir once scared the Malays by portraying the Chinese and the DAP as bogeymen, Umno and PAS began to redefine the struggle by framing non-Muslims as enemies of Islam.

Hadi Awang started insulting others by calling them animals. He also accused them of being corruptible, even though the major corruption cases involved Muslims at all levels, the highest being a former prime minister.

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

If MIC, MCA and Gerakan allow non-Muslims to cooperate with PAS, that is fine, because then they must all submit to PAS’s definition of dhimmi, second-class citizens, under the absolute authority of Muslim politicians.

That is my personal view on non-Muslims cooperating with the so-called Islamic party.

Why did the Islamic Reformation fail to bring about a complete transformation of Malays and Malaysia? Was it wrong to introduce Islam into modern politics? I will address all this in another article, God willing.

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