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Will war dash the hopes of a moderate Islam?

February 11 2003

The price for routing Saddam could be to strengthen extreme Islamic movements in tolerant Muslim countries like Malaysia, writes Tim Colebatch.

If the issue in Iraq were simply about removing Saddam Hussein, the choice would be easy. A firing squad would be too good for the creep. But it involves more than that.

One crucial question is how an invasion of Iraq would affect the war for the heart of Islam in the 21st century. Is it to be a forward-looking, tolerant, reforming religion, at home in the modern world and its proliferation of faiths and godlessness, its materialism, gender equality and diversity?

Or will the war be won by those who want to take Islamic societies back to the laws and values of an idealised past: at the extreme, a medieval world-view that enforces narrow conformity, hides its women, sees other religions as enemies, and enshrines rule by traditional Islamic law, the sharia?

This war is taking place now, throughout the world, in every Muslim community. The conflict is sharpest in Iran, but it is present even in Melbourne. And a crucial battleground is the only Muslim country among the world's economic success stories.

Malaysia is the one Islamic state that has climbed into relative affluence through manufacturing exports rather than oil. It is a multiracial country where Malays, Chinese and Indians live separately, but in relative harmony, despite resentments on all sides.

Since 1998, headlines from Malaysia have been dominated by Mahathir Mohamad's jailing of his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim. But Anwar is now a spent force. The real political battle in the country is very different. That contest is between those who want Malaysia to be nominally Islamic but essentially secular and multiracial - such as Mahathir and his looming successor, Abdullah Badawi - and those who want it to be a fundamentalist Islamic state, controlled by ulamas (religious teachers) and the sharia.

The political spearhead of this alternative Malaysia is the Parti Islam se-Malaysia, or PAS. In the northern state of Kelantan, it has introduced Islamic laws, shut down entertainment venues, and fostered a network of religious schools. In 1999, Anwar's supporters helped PAS take control of neighbouring Terengganu, and win 27 seats in the national Parliament to become the official opposition.

With Mahathir to retire in October and elections due next year, observers warn that PAS could make more gains in the north and on the east coast, where economic growth has trickled, rather than flowed, and the population is overwhelmingly Malay.

Some of PAS's actions may seem just bizarre. Last month in the Kelantan capital of Kota Bharu, the city council ordered all posters of women, whether Kylie, Renee Zellweger or local models, to be removed unless their heads were covered by the traditional Islamic tudung. Chief Minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat endorsed the move as simply requiring women to "dress decently". His government has imposed segregation of the sexes in cinemas and other entertainment venues, and required men and women to have separate supermarket checkouts and hairdressing salons.

But a new book, The Mahathir Legacy, by veteran Australian foreign correspondent Ian Stewart, relates that in Federal Parliament, PAS leaders also tried to introduce legislation imposing the death penalty on any Malay who renounces Islam. Only federal intervention has stopped Nik Aziz imposing traditional sharia penalties such as amputating the hands of thieves and stoning adulterers.

Nik Aziz has called the attack on the World Trade Centre "the will of Allah", and urged Muslims to support the Taliban against the United States. And around PAS, a series of terrorist cells have sprung up.

One, al-Ma'unah, raided two army camps in 2000, seized 100 rifles and called on Malays to rise up and overthrow the government. After its leader, Mohamad Amin Razali, was captured and sentenced to death for treason, Stewart recounts, many Islamic clerics refused to condemn him, and used their mosques to declare the Mahathir Government un-Islamic.

The same year, an Indian Christian politician was assassinated by another Muslim group, the Kumpulan mujahideen Malaysia (Islamic Warriors Group of Malaysia), which police allege was led by one of Nik Aziz's sons, and inspired by Indonesian terrorist guru Abu Bakar Bashir.

Now with the Islamic tide swamping Mahathir's own party - one state has just removed restrictions on polygamy, while in another a soccer star has been charged under Islamic law for being with his girlfriend - the veteran leader has launched a wide-ranging campaign to defend Malaysia's multiracial mainstream.

Mahathir has cut off federal funding for Islamic community schools, accusing them of "political indoctrination" and failure to educate Malay children. Schools have been ordered to start teaching maths and science in English, not Malay. Religion is to be separated from secular education, with Malay children offered separate religious classes after school.

He is also planning compulsory non-military national service for all 18-year-old men, to break down racial barriers and keep young Malaysians committed to the multiracial ideal. The army and police, overwhelmingly Malay, are now seeking Chinese recruits.

Mahathir has been so dominant, and ruthless, in the Malaysian political scene that the prospect of fundamentalist rule may seem remote. His looming successor, Abdullah Badawi, is a moderate now campaigning hard for multiracialism. And no one expects PAS to win the next election.

But even in the success story of Malaysia, the tide is running towards fundamentalism. Mahathir, the only Muslim leader to condemn Palestinian terrorism, warns that a US attack on Iraq would just strengthen that tide, shifting the balance against Muslim moderates throughout the world.

How would the US defend moderate, modern Islam against the blow it plans to strike?

Staff writer Tim Colebatch recently returned from three weeks in Malaysia and Singapore.



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