Why don’t we see more sincere Muslim reformers? If they get this kind of reception in “moderate” Malaysia, imagine how they’re received everywhere else. The leaders of Malaysia, like Muslim leaders the world over, know what is in Islamic texts and teachings. And they act accordingly.
“Malaysia accused of bowing to Islamists with book ban,” Straits Times, July 30, 2017 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Malaysia has long outlawed books deemed “deviant” from mainstream Sunni Islam, but a ban on a book of essays by public intellectuals on Islam’s role in its constitutional democracy has drawn wide criticism for pandering to Islamists.
The book, Breaking The Silence: Voices Of Moderation – Islam In A Constitutional Democracy, was produced by a group of prominent Muslims who in 2014 dubbed themselves the Group of 25, or G25.
The ban comes at a time when questions are raised over the reach of Malaysia’s Islamic authorities and its impact on government bureaucracy, and whether the voices of moderate Muslims are being cast aside and replaced by those with deeply conservative views.
The book was launched in December 2015 by Umno’s longest-serving MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. In the book’s foreword, former prime minister Abdullah Badawi wrote that he hoped it would “encourage an informed and rational dialogue on the ways Islam is used as a source of public law and policy in multiracial and multi-religious Malaysia yet within the letter and spirit of the federal Constitution”….
G25 is seeking an explanation from the Home Ministry for the ban, calling it “an obvious action meant to suppress free speech”.
“It is very disheartening if the government is giving in to Islamists and conservatives. They see us as secular and unfortunately, to them, secular is a bad word meaning anti-Islam,” G25 spokesman and former judge Noor Farida Ariffin told The Sunday Times.
The ban, made under the Printing Presses and Publications Act on June 14, was gazetted on Thursday.
According to the gazette signed by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi – who is also Home Minister – the book “is likely to be prejudicial to public order, likely to alarm public opinion, and likely to be prejudicial to public interest is absolutely prohibited throughout Malaysia”.
Centre for Public Policy Studies chairman Ramon Navaratnam has challenged the ministry to “state clearly the evidence of any resulting public disorder and openly explain whose public opinion and public interest has been prejudiced or badly hurt by this learned book”.
Critics of the ban said it was contrary to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s international push for moderation to hold sway in the face of religious extremists.
The government’s own Human Rights Commission said it was “aghast” at the ban as most of the book’s chapters focused on moderate Islam as advocated by PM Najib.
And opposition stalwart Lim Kit Siang said: “What is the use of the Prime Minister launching the international initiative of a Global Movement of Moderates… if the Cabinet allows the forces of extremism and intolerance to rear their ugly heads by jettisoning the constitutional principles of moderation, such as arbitrarily banning the G25 book.”…
Indeed.
moeped says
Shocking that such a beloved moderate nation such as Malaysia would behave this way. What is this world coming to? Shocking!!
Logic-logic says
This move could be election ploy to please the Islamists in the coming general election.
However, i must appreciate the work of the Malaysian police in actively arresting most of the IS elements in that country and prevented many possible jihad attacks.
Therefore, Malaysia is more peaceful than UK and EU.
katherine says
Afraid your logic is somewhat misplaced. The reason why an Islam-skewed administration wants to suppress violent Jihad is because the lawmakers themselves are busy undermining that nation’s secular Constitution, the same way that the CAIR is trying to modify US laws – through stealth.
By that reckoning, it would be a pleasant achievement to create an Islamic State without any violence and bloodshed – by deception alone – so those reckless, impatient terrorists are simply a nuisance in this process.
Please understand the sophistry.
Fair views TH says
Busy undermining that nation’s secular Constitution is one thing, but more importantly is to keep the peace to protect the multi trillion RM businesses in the whole country.
Fair views TH says
Suppressing violent Jihad is good police work. Undermining that nation’s secular Constitution is the work of the Islamist politicians. No stealth here as every thing has to go through the Malaysian Parliament..
jule says
Malaysia is not moderate. Have you noticed what has moved in? Malaysia is Not moderate.
gravenimage says
“Moderate” Malaysia bans book on Islamic “voices of moderation”
…………………
Well, *that* pretty much says it all…
PATRICIA FRANCES KOENIG says
Islam is a Satanic death cult. It makes no sense to try to reform it. Even if a few verses of the Koran were reformed, Muslims would still be worshiping Allah, who is Satan. Satan inspires violence, cruelty, and sexual perversion.
Guy Forester says
I thought an article was posted yesterday regarding 60 hero Imams condemning violence in the name of Islam. Where are those guys? Guess they are not welcome there any more than this book.
simpleton1 says
In a nearby country Surveillance Research of mosques by Indonesian government,
Would this be also happening in Malaysia?
They are now “operating more secretively” and spreading out after this exposure.
Joeyn says
Islam uses moderate to deceive the whole world. Its actual substance is far from moderate. The Lefr in the West are. applying the same deception.
Robeaver says
Left of what? The north pole. Newt? Obama? Trump? Nazis?
I am left of Hitler, so blame me for this.
Terry Gain says
You are in denial about the support of The Left for Islam.
mortimer says
Quote: “What is the use of the Prime Minister launching the international initiative of a Global Movement of Moderates… if the Cabinet allows the forces of extremism and intolerance to … jettison (…) the constitutional principles of moderation.”
That is the right question. The Indonesian PM has called for moderation, but is unable to provide a venue for MODERATE ISLAM to be heard. So much for non-Islamic voices to be heard.
The Islamist EXTREMISTS are dictating to the government of Indonesia. Their message: “Do what we (Islamists) say or will riot! Or worse!”
Apparently MODERATION is not what is compatible with Islam.
Jay says
Islam is capable of pretending to be very moderate, but it will eventually erupt into atrocities when it gains enough numbers and enough political clout to start massacring people.
AzB says
I don’t know if it’s that capable of appearing moderate considering the past 16 years of events in various major cities.
AzB says
Terrorism is “wrong” (in islamic terms) because of the harm it causes to Islamic community – s not wrong because of killing people; its wrong because its a poor method for advancing and protecting muslim community lol
AzB says
Hmm just had an interesting thought. One of the arguments terrorist groups will be using to justify more of the same is that it disrupts the international order – the international order being the axis of USa, UK, European powers, especially former colonial ones, Israel, Russia, and the governments like Saudi Royal family, who they prop up – to repress “true islamic nation”.
This has been their argument all along pretty much. the justification for “distant jihads”. The argument for 9/11. And every other terror strike. its either tit-for-tat on some foreign policy past or present, or its with an actual strategic objective to cause the above axis to splinter. it can work at the level of agreements like the UN, EU, or NATO. And it can work at the level of discord WITHIN societies too.
Both it has to be granted have shifted since the past 15 years, thanks to terrorism. So some will argue this is a justification. The mainstream muslims would say, no no no, it is no good, because it cause hatred on muslims , and many muslims live in the West, and need the economy of the west to be good, or their own businesses or long term plans will suffer. ISIL and the like will call those muslims traitors to ummah.
But the mainstream islamists would say civilizational jihad is better (birth rates, win friends and influence, and provoke the taking in of as many muslims through migration, family laws, and refugee crisis and laws, as possible).
So who has the better argument right now? I’d say it could be the radicals really. they can point to specific instanes of break up of western axis or discord – its obvious in the case of brexit and trump. Internally the EU itself is showing signs of strain aswell. they know they cannot attack a totally united West. But they might be able to attack peices of it if they can chip them off one at a time and sow discord.
So a really good counterargument would be if the west actually UNDERSTOOD this is how they may reason. And was decisive and firm “no more muslim immigrants due to terrorism” and just said it and did it. Thus showing – if you try a strategy, we got a strategy too. You move, our move is stronger. Whatever civilizational jihad you are imagining, just got 50 years slower. Stuff like that. Would work. It would greatly dampen the zeal by making terror jihad futile. They got an impetus now though … impetus and initiative.
But no, of course, there are millions of drippy liberals protesting and arguing this to be violation of rights. Such annoying people. No strategic logic because they just accepted without questioning this argument about moderation. All the human rights lobby right now are playing into actual international jihad strategy.
The most decisive countermove would be drastic reductions in muslim migration and imposing significant barriers to visas and families. Cutting off the well spring of the jihadi imagination at source. They already have those charts showing muslim global population to rise to world’s largest religion by 2050. this in itself provides an animus. the gradual fragmentation of west into blocks disagreeing about what to do about it is a perfect outcome from POV of jihadis. It gives justification to their methodology as a battle tactic. The west’s failure to cut off one of the major sources of civilizational jihad explains why the terror method might continue to work. And liberals are the ones facilitating that.
AzB says
The UN rights frameowkrs and ECHR will also have to be ripped up and made again. That won’t happen until there is western unanimity on doing so. I wish they’d just get on with it. Stop dithering. Who cares if it offends a few people there’s been thousands of terrorist incidents now all coming out one religion if that makes your “freedom of religion” clauses in migration rights etc invalid then so be it.
I don’t see how anyone can reasonably argue with the conclusion. its just oil isn’t it. Bullying and blackmail tactics about oil (or rather the Ulemas bully the royal families, with threats of insurrection, so the royal families have to pass that message on to western countries, who then dutifully act nice for the interests of middle east stability because none of us can afford civil wars engulfing those oil fields); or worse, to be obliged to negotiate with a Saudi -sized state like ISIL
Hence self sufficient energy generation is the key strategic goal in the coming decades, above all else.
I’m afraid Germany made a very bad mistake in decommissioning nuclear. It should be priority No1 to extricate totally from oil dependency. And after that, to rip up UN and ECHR and remarke them in a way which renders civilizational jihad a far too distant objective to even bother thinking about. Damping the islamist fire through patrician law making.
yes that could be provocative and cause a number to leap up and say “war is declared, now we can fight”. But so be it. You don’t negotiate with terrorism. Youdon’t negotiate with the mafia. You just gotta suck it up, whatever the reaction, until it is quelled.
Can’t do that while depending on oil though. In meantime it’s a fun time for muslims who like thinking about world conversion, because their numbers are growing and they can see our leaders are struggling to figure out a strategy here, and they can see a lot of the cultural issues prevent from acting, either in terms of being shamed out of polite conversations, bullied, threatened with legal tactics, or appearing to be opposed to other “progressive causes” (LGBT feminism etc) so incurring the wrath of the powerful identity politics lobby into the bargain.
Basically islam slipped a civilization jihad into the progressive culture mix. And we’re at risk for as long as it gets away with doing that , and there’s a lot of cash being spent in this world to keep it in there, we’re at risk while we depend on oil, and we’re at risk while the majority of western countries cannot figure out any way to get out of the bind, and indeed, don’t even seem to realise they are in one. And all muslims have to do in the meantime is “act moderate”.
Shouldn’t be that hard, should it?
kuriakose says
I was born in Malaysia (my father immigrated to Malaya) when the British started rubber plantations on a large scale. The British were the ones who brought law and order and education to the country. It was a typical Muslim society before the British stepped in, a male dominated society where women were kept secluded. Hardly any education and learning except some Islamic type schools. The British brought law and order to the country which were plagued by the usual problems (piracy, rival claimants to power as the elite would have multiple wives and children, slavery etc). Chinese and Indian immigrants came to work the tin mines and rubber plantations as the local Malay muslims were not the type to work hard at these sorts of jobs. Non Malays took advantage of the education offered by the British, and as a result the Malay elite followed suit. Schools were run by the British or Catholic/Protestant churches/organisations. They provided uch a wonderful education. This is what really caused the emancipation of the muslim woman, as they saw Chinese and Indian women being educated and working, the elite Malays followed suit. The village Malays were more more reluctant to send their children to English schools as per islamic norms. Generations of Malays, both men and women educated in British schools became the leaders of the country. You can see many Malay women holding high posts today. This was all due to the British coming into the country, nothing due to islam. After independence, the islamists started to assert themselves, especially after the islamic revolution and the Malay politicians also started become more islamic to satisfy their citizens.
These so called moderate muslims know fully well that islam will destroy all that Malaysia has built up in the past. However many of them like Linus and his blanket still cling on to the hope that islam can be reformed. Hypocrites really trying to whitewash all the evil deeds of their prophet. Saudi Arabia is controlling Malaysia to a great extent by pumping in a lot of money so you can expect more pure islam.
Fair views says
According to Dr. Mahathir Mohd, the ex PM of Malasia for 22 years. Sodi Arabia never gave money to Malaysia. IT needs not give money nor control Malaysia for most Malays are addicted to Islam and try to be Arabised as much as possible, thanks to the many ME trained preachers and the many Islamic institutions built by the Government.
Just after Independence, the Western-educated elites were in charge of the Government, and hence Malaysia were considered moderate by the Western World But now these elites are becoming the minority as more and more Islamic scholars are in charge.
The group of 25 could be “the last of the Mohicans”.
kuriakose says
The current PM has accepted large donations from Saudi entities. There were big complaints about this, but the saudi donor did say it was a “donation”. I guess you know what that means. Malaysia is worried about extremists as the ruling elite would be targeted as being corrupt and unislamic so they also need to appease these islamists. A difficult tightrope to walk. At the same time Malaysia does allow terrorists to pass through for training, the immigration dept is so corrupt. They need to appease their Saudi masters.
Fair views TH says
There was never any proof that the the PM received any donation from the Saudi. No bank statement was ever produced at all, even though the ex PM, Dr. Mahathir had demanded it many times..
The Saudi themselves are facing bankruptcy when the oil prices are sliding down at jet speed.
gravenimage says
Yes–the British influence is the only reason Malaysia is still as residually moderate as it is.
sidney penny says
Robert
It is MMM not MM
“Modern” “Moderate” Malaysia
Yes Truly Asia(Malaysian tourism slogan)
sidney penny says
“It is very disheartening if the government is giving in to Islamists and conservatives. They see us as secular and unfortunately, to them, secular is a bad word meaning anti-Islam,” G25 spokesman and former judge Noor Farida Ariffin told The Sunday Times.”
Muslims in India love secular.( not majority)
Muslims in Malaysia do not.( majority Muslims)
kuriakose says
According to islam, being secular IS antiislam
Papa Whiskey says
Be it noted that this book may be ordered through Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Silence-Ahmad-Kamil-Jaafar/dp/9814677213/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501493272&sr=1-1&keywords=breaking+the+silence+voices+of+moderation
FYI says
Would the devout Malaysians be willing to accept a list …of God’s Original Commandments?
Is that too controversial for muslims to have to deal with?
Would it kill them to obey God’s Official Commandments(you know the ones that allah doesn’t agree with and brazenly encourages his followers to break in his koran)??
I know it is very,very,very hard for devout muslims to actually obey ANY of God’s Original commandments{=forbidding murder,stealing,lying etc} since they prefer to follow allah’s commandment-violating teachings instead{=sanctioning the murder of the innocent,stealing from infidels,adultery,polygamy,sexual slavery of women,taqqiya(lying!)…and many,many more….}and since they love to put on a public show of piety
And they think because they pray 5 times a day towards a stone in mecca that this makes them really,really holy and worthy to go to their creepy islamic paradise where the mass-murdering anti-Semitic,anti-Christian Mo no doubt dwells.. and jibreel,that anti-Semitic angel of islam that likes to impersonate the angel Gabriel…and allah who “curses the Jews and Christians”k:9:30.
Outward shows of religious piety are WORTHLESS to God …
if His Commandments are TWISTED,IGNORED AND DISOBEYED…
..which is EXACTLY what allah teaches in his perfect book.{Some muslims I know actually have discovered the Truth about allah/his “prophet”…well ,muslims need to seriously UPGRADE to find the truth about God:go back and look at those Original Commandments,follow those instead of allah/mo… and you will see that the Bible agrees with them but the koran doesn’t.Can muslims not see the difference between God and allah?But then “there are none so blind as those who REFUSE to see”}
And that Sixth Commandment in particular, should be underlined in case the devout muslims have any difficulty understanding that neither the perverse,morally wrong instructions of their Commandment-violating god allah {“slay the unbelievers wherever you find them” k2:191}nor the disgraceful example of their self-appointed “prophet” muhammed should ever,ever, be followed.Certainly not by any righteous or morally good person.
So what comes first for muslims?
Is it humble obedience to God’s Original Commandments?
Or
Is it blind obedience to their god allah and the immoral example of Mo ,the mass murderer?
It is the latter choice that must muslims will make…….and yet amazingly..they think they are going to some paradise…even if they are in complete disobedience to His Commandments( which allah encourages his followers to break in his perfect book!!).
If you break or twist God’s commandments you are sinning against God and anyone who tells you that it is Ok to break them is in opposition to God and encouraging sin.
Someone say, like the moon god hubaal or jibreel or Mo the perfect man..
Dacritic says
Dr Spencer, I actually think Islam cannot be reformed. You mentioned before that you think it is going to be very hard for Islam to be reformed too, because obviously Allah said in Quran 4:3 that Islam was already “perfect” during the time of Muhammad. I agree. And here is my head on the chopping board. Islam CANNOT be reformed.
So while I don’t agree that any book should be banned, if this “moderate group” were allowed to publish this “moderate Islam” book and therefore mislead more people into thinking that Islam COULD be or is a religion of peace, then a book to make a point from the other side, i.e. the idea that Islam cannot actually be reformed, had to be published too in order to debate this issue.
So no. No more nonsense from “moderate”, “reformation” Muslims who dare not leave Islam and who are trying to argue that Islam is a religion of peace to mislead the rest of the world.
You know much better than me, Dr Spencer, that in order for any Muslim, “moderate” or otherwise, to justify the actions of Muhammad, they have to use some form of taqiyya. They can’t run from that, can they? If they are not willing to stop calling Muhammad a prophet of God, let alone THE prophet of God, that’s it for me.
Terry Gain says
I agree. What kind of God would choose as a prophet a man who murders critics, takes sexual slaves, enjoins his followers to kill unbelievers and promises an eternity of sexual pleasure for men who die while engaged in Jihad?
Jaladhi says
Hey that’s the god of Muslim kind and Muslims gleefully follow all the commands of this demon!
Jaladhi says
Yup, Islam will not and cannot reform!! Who dares to alter the words spoken by allah and Mo? Whoever does will lose his head!! It is this fear of separation of their head from their body will keep all Muslims in line! Forget this illusion of reforming Islam. And once you reform Islam what is their for Muslims to follow? Nothing and Islam will die off!
gravenimage says
This book was not banned because it was whitewashing Islam–but because it was not Islamic enough.
David says
Yeah, it sounds like such a hateful book. Moderation is so bad!
John A. Marre says
So the Islamists silence or kill those who would tone down the violence. Doesn’t give much hope for Islam ever being reformed and turning into something that we could live side by side with.
Jaladhi says
There is nothing moderate in “moderate” Malaysia. Its only the illusion pushed by the Western “experts” and Muslim apologists. In fact Malaysia is the Saudi Arabia of the East!! If at all possible they might even claim Mo was born in Malaysia and started his cult there! LOL..