Two years ago, after visiting the Malaysia, Obama expressed his vision of fostering and deepening bilateral relations with the famously moderate country. Part of that vision was to allow Malaysians to travel visa-free to the U.S.
That may not be a good idea now, given the South China Morning Post report that “Malaysia risks turning into a hardline religious state, where adulterers are stoned to death and thieves have their hands chopped off” — that is, a hardline Islamic state.
The warning came from former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as current premier Nijib Razak reportedly “courts Islamists to shore up support for his scandal-tainted United Malays National Organisation (Umno) party.”
Political expediency is a global peccadillo that seems to turn up any and everywhere in various forms, as politicians vie for the support of Muslim lobbyist groups and funding. What Mohamad warns about in principle is reminiscent of what the Obama administration and other Western leftists have been doing for votes, i.e. courting stealth jihadists and building partnerships with “unindicted co-conspirators”.
Of course, this is not to compare the acts of stoning adulterers to death in front of a crowd and chopping of hands for stealing to that of leading a civilization along the path of becoming an incubator of jihad terror and exposing citizens to random jihadist attacks. One is far more barbaric than the other, now, isn’t it?
“Mahathir fans fears of brutal punishments if Malaysia adopts strict sharia penal code”, South China Morning Post, June 27, 2016:
Malaysia risks turning into a hardline religious state, where adulterers are stoned to death and thieves have their hands chopped off.
The grim warning from former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, comes as current premier Najib Razak courts Islamists to shore up support for his scandal-tainted United Malays National Organisation (Umno) party.
“What is happening now is that Umno feels itself isolated because of what Najib has done. So in search of alliance, Umno is actually trying to win over PAS (Parti Islam se-Malaysia),” Mahathir said in an exclusive interview with South China Morning Post.
PAS wants to introduce the strict sharia penal code hudud, which punishes thieves by chopping off their hands. There’s a chance this could happen, according to Mahathir.
“To win over PAS, they support hudud. That is why hudud has been brought up in parliament. It was actually Umno which helped this movement to increase the power of the sharia court.”
The tiny neighbouring sultanate of Brunei began implementing hudud penalties in 2014, fanning fears in Malaysia of accelerated Islamisation.
Last month, the Malaysian government unexpectedly fast-tracked the tabling of a PAS-sponsored hudud bill in parliament, taking many by surprise…….