Lee Kwan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore, should know a thing or three about Islam — he’s been living in very close proximity with Islam and its votaries for almost his entire life. Modern Singapore exists as a wealthy, advanced non-Muslim city state surrounded on all sides by a virtual sea of Islam. Singapore also has its own Muslim minority, which Lee struggled to ‘integrate’ into mainstream Singaporean (i.e. non Islamic) culture for his entire professional life. If this sounds familiar, it should. It turns out that the devout Muslims in Singapore, as well as elsewhere, do not integrate — they invariably demand, sooner or later, that the rest of infidel society adapt to them.
Lee’s solution to this dilemma, according to his own recent book “Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going”, was to urge the Muslim minority in Singapore to be, in short, less observant in their Islamic devotions. According to the mainstream, politically correct “Peaceful-Islam-has-been-hijacked-by-a-Tiny-Minority-of-Extremists” point of view, this solution will make no sense. But as Mr. Lee, at least in private, is most likely not hindered by such fanciful notions regarding Islam; he knows better, and he is telling us as much in his latest book.
That’s what makes his tome such a threat to devout believers, and why Allah’s Lifestyle and Thought Police (AKA ‘Jakim’) have quickly swung into action by banning it. From “Jakim declares book on Lee Kuan Yew haram” by Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider, 8 December 2011:
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 “” Federal Islamic authorities have declared haram a
book in which Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew urged Muslims in
Singapore to be “less strict on Islamic observances.”
Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, a collection of
interviews published in January, was included in a list of 15 books
declared haram by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia
(Jakim).Jakim’s planning and research division confirmed the decision was
made when its committee on the censorship of publications with Islamic
elements met in October.However, both the division’s director and Jakim director general
Datuk Othman Mustapha have not responded to queries by The Malaysian
Insider on why the decision was made nine months after the book hit the
shelves in Malaysia.According to procedure, the list of books declared haram is sent to
the home ministry for further action but it is unclear if the home
ministry has followed suit and banned the books.Othman’s predecessor Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz had said in
February that Lee was unsuccessful in developing the mindset of the
Singaporean public because he was “still influenced by the landscape of
the 1960s which were full of prejudice and presumptions against
Muslims.”
Which is the fault of non Muslims, naturally.
Lee, who served in Singapore’s Cabinet as PM, senior minister and
minister mentor for 52 years before retiring in May, said in the book
that Muslims in Singapore were socially “distinct and separate” and
should “be less strict on Islamic observances” to aid integration and
the city-state’s nation-building process.It led to uproar from Malay and Muslims groups on both sides of the
Causeway with his old rival and former Malaysian PM Tun Dr Mahathir
Mohamad accusing Lee of having no respect for religion.
By ‘having no respect for religion’, he of course only means one particular religion, and no points for figuring out which one he’s referring to.
Malaysia’s ‘moderate’ version of Islam, upon even cursory inspection, turns out to be no different from the Islam of other Islamic supremacists around the world. The desired objective of the Islamic supremacists both here in Malaysia and elsewhere remains the same — that Islam is to be an unquestioned and totalitarian cultural, political, economic, legal and military force. The means to achieve this end in Malaysia are no different than those methods employed by Islamic supremacists elsewhere — all opposition to Islam, no matter how trivial, must be silenced.