KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 ― Malay-rights group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) has claimed that the country may be speeding towards racial conflict as it defended the deputy prime minister’s recent remark that Malaysia may see a repeat of the May 13 racial riots.

Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman said there is “concrete evidence” to support the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's assertion, stressing that “threats” against Malays and Islam would soon lead into full-blown racial conflict if left unaddressed.

“There is concrete evidence where certain parties are now forcing their will on the Malays and Muslims and denying them their sovereignty and their rights as enshrined by the federal constitution,” Abdullah Zaik was quoted as saying in an article uploaded on the group's website Ismaweb.

He labelled opposition party DAP as  “extremists” for attacking Muhyiddin for the remark.

“The threats being made by DAP are part and parcel of this on-going pressure. DAP and other Chinese parties are hiding under the guise of a multiracial slogan so that they can get what they want and destroy the rights of Malays and Islam,” Abdullah Zaik added.

Last Friday, Muhyiddin, who is also Umno deputy president, was reported by Malay-language daily Utusan Malaysia as saying May 13 racial riots may happen again if ties between the country’s ethnic communities continued to be strained.

Muhyiddin did not mention the date  but Utusan Malaysia inserted May 13, 1969 to his comment in parentheses.

Malaysia professes to be a multi-racial and cultural country but has seen increasing racial and religious tensions in recent years.

Muslims and Christians have been pitted against one another due to the government’s decision to prohibit the Catholic Church from using “Allah”, the Arabic word for God, in its weekly newsletter.

The Catholic Church this month lost a six-year battle to contest the ban, when the Federal Court declined to hear its appeal against the prohibition.

Although the legal battle was limited to the publication in question , the decision has affected other aspects of Christian worship and led to demands by Muslims for “Allah” to be exclusive to Islam.

Malay concerns over the affirmative action type policies enjoyed by Bumiputeras have also bubbled to the surface in recent months after Putrajaya’s National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) proposed three draft bills to replace the Sedition Act.

Among others, the laws and the members of the NUCC responsible for drafting them have been accused of being anti-Malay.

Hundreds of Malaysians are believed to have died during the May 13, 1969 clashes between the Malay and Chinese communities. Triggered by the results of the general election in 1969, the riots had its roots in ethnic tensions between the two communities.

Pro-Bumiputera affirmative action programmes such as the New Economic Policy  were introduced in its aftermath and remain in various forms decades later, leading to dissatisfaction among the countries minorities.