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‘Liberalism’ and ‘pluralism’ are two words that have powerful connotations. If you ask people on the street what comes to mind, some might say ‘democracy’ and others might say ‘freedom of expression’. It is unlikely that you would hear ‘an affront to Islam’ as a response. But this is what Malaysia’s Prime Minster Najib asserts. According to the Malaysian Insider, he expressed that the LGBT community, liberalism, pluralism, and ‘all these “–isms” are against Islam and it is compulsory for [Malaysians] to fight these’. On the same day, he claimed that Malaysia’s movement for electoral reform, known as Bersih, tarnished the image of Muslims. By PM Najib’s proclamation, the Saudi Arabian government threatened to suspend the haj pilgrimage quota for up to three years due to Bersih’s massive public demonstrations. These demonstrations were composed of ‘peaceful protestors’ that were met with ‘police brutality’, according to Amnesty International.
Before I begin my response, I need to make clear that I am no expert on religion, let alone Islam. Regardless, I can confidently say that Prime Minster Najib’s statements are abusive to Islam. It is obvious that PM Najib is bringing up the issue of religion to scare and control the people into submission. Any sort of ‘dissent’, be it through one’s sexual orientation or the desire for a liberal and fair democracy, are apparently against Islam.
I find it difficult to believe that the House of Saud would completely bar Malaysians from entering Mecca due to Bersih demonstrations. The reason Saudi Arabia made this threat was due to the fact that Malaysians carried out protests in Medina, and not due to the demands of the protest itself. I agree that politics should not enter any religious grounds, and PM Najib is right to demand it to stop. However, that does not mean that demonstrations for electoral reform should stop at home. If domestic movements for democracy and liberalism were insulting to Islam, how is it possible that Egyptians, Libyans, and all those involved in the Arab Spring have not been banished from Mecca for eternity? PM Najib must make the distinction between the realms of politics and religion.
Some may argue that the fault does not lie with the Malaysian government, but rather Saudia Arabia for threatening to axe haj pilgrimage quotas. However, Saudi Arabia is no shining beacon of human rights or liberal values. Does PM Najib really want to run his government cowering under Saudi Arabia, a country infamous for human rights violations? Would that not be equivalent to Spain or Italy’s politics being dominated by Vatican City values? Perhaps the Malaysian government could benefit from taking a class or two on European history.
However, why is PM Najib bringing up religion in the first place? LGBT issues excluded, electoral reform, and ideologies such as pluralism and liberalism are political. The Bersih movement is in no way a religious movement, and definitely not an affront to Islam. It is a purely political movement that transcends the post-colonial ethnic divisions that still exist, hidden behind the veil of tropical flower and ‘Malaysia-Truly-Asia’ jingles that tourists rarely see through. It has united the country more than anything before. If PM Najib deems the Bersih movement illegal on religious grounds, it is not only unfair to 40% of the non-Muslim population but also goes against Article 10 of the Malaysian constitution, which defends the freedom of free speech, assembly, and association.
I want to ask PM Najib to stop using Islam as a scapegoat for his policies. The religion is already subject to so much hate and xenophobia from the masses of ignorant people that litter our streets. This is happening in our own backyard, with the rise of extremist right wing political groups running on a platform of discrimination and exclusion. For PM Najib, himself a Muslim, to say such things is to reaffirm for many that Islam is an intolerant and bigoted religion, incompatible with the views held by liberal western democracies. With Islamophobia on the rise, the best advice that I have for PM Najib is to kindly shut his gob.
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