Human rights lawyer: non-Muslims now "second-class citizens" in Malaysia

Many times people have challenged me by saying that dhimmitude is a relic of the past, and that no Muslims today are striving to revive it. That is factually untrue, as several imams are on record saying that they would like to revive it, as I document in Onward Muslim Soldiers. And here is more evidence that it is not at all a dead concept: a Malaysian human rights lawyer complaining that the advance of Sharia there has made non-Muslims into second-class citizens.

From "Malaysia: Islam and multi-culturalism," in BBC News, with thanks to Twostellas:

The policies of Mahathir and Umno have come under fire from two different quarters.

For secular liberals like human-rights lawyer Malik Imtiaz, the "Islamisation" of Malaysian society and politics has gone too far, and is eroding the country's once-liberal traditions.

The non-Muslims, he says bluntly, are second-class citizens.

For the Islamic opposition party Pas, on the other hand, Islamisation has not gone nearly far enough.

Anwar Ibrahim is resuming his role as a leading opposition politician
Ever since it broke away from Umno in the 1950s, PAS has argued that Malaysia should become an Islamic state governed by the Sharia (Islamic law).

This has thrown Umno onto the defensive.

If what American Muslim advocacy groups say about Islam is true, the Sharia advocates should be the ones on the defensive. But as you can see, that is not the case.

Posted by Robert at February 8, 2005 7:27 AM
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