JANUARY 29 — Freedom of speech is the right to communicate one’s opinions and ideas without fear of government retaliation or censorship. But when it comes to Islam, any criticism is taken as a personal insult by most Muslims.

With the rise of Islamic radicalism, worldwide geopolitical turmoil caused by Muslim refugees, and worsening Islamisation in this country, should Islam be exempt from any analysis? When there are political elements to the belief structure or in other word “Islamism”, should Islam still be exempt from any criticism?

There is a huge difference between criticising an ideology and criticising individuals. Islam is an ideology and it should be open to criticism and analysis just like any other ideology before and after it especially when it imposes its sets of believes unto others (be it Muslims or non-Muslims).

With increasing voices of dissent heard from notable figures in Malaysia, it’s only rational to take the discussion to the next level before Islamism takes a worse turn in this country.

Before we start talking about Islamisation in Malaysia, let’s get a few terminologies correctly. Strictly speaking, Islam is just a religion while Islamism or ‘Political Islam’ is the desire to impose a version of Islam on the rest of society.

Political Islamist generally do not believe in resorting to violence, such examples include any Muslim Brotherhood organisation, most notably at recent times in Malaysia is Hizbut Tahrir. Jihadism on the other hand, is the use of force to spread Islamism i.e. ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, etc.

Talking about Islam in Malaysia or anywhere else for that matter is indeed a hazardous task.

Intolerance towards any disagreement in regards to Islamic culture and ideology has resulted in violence everywhere in the world. Bangladeshi bloggers hacked to death, Charlie Hebdo shooting in France, embassies burned over ‘Innocence of Muslims’ trailer and of course one of the biggest threat to humanity, ISIS.

Majority of Muslims around the world are definitely against the violence imposed by ISIS, and it angers them when non-Muslims lump all Muslims together with ISIS.

According to a newly released data that the Pew Research Centre collected in 11 countries with significant Muslim populations, people from Nigeria to Jordan and Indonesia to Malaysia, overwhelmingly expressed negative views of ISIS.

So can we still claim Islam is ‘the root of all evil’? This is indeed a complex argument and very sensitive in nature. One could argue that Islam is a religion of peace and all those things done by ISIS are opposite to what Islam teaches.

But one could also argue that ISIS is Islamic, very Islamic according to a revealing article written by Graeme Wood, published in the March 2015 issue of The Atlantic.

The Islamic State’s interpretations of Quranic teachings are fundamental to its mission. The beheadings, slavery, rape and the rest of their barbaric and monstrous acts are very much religiously inspired. Adding to that, based on a poll result published in July 2014 in Saudi Arabia, 92 per cent of the Saudi population seem to think that ISIS “conforms to the values of Islam and Islamic law.” Clearly, ISIS has something to do with Islam.

With the global ISIS threat going on right now, the issue of Islamisation in Malaysia is becoming a vital topic that needs to be discussed. When more than 120 Malaysians are found to be fighting for ISIS and the recent ISIS threat in Kuala Lumpur, Islamism should be blamed and the sooner people realise this fact the faster solutions can be found.

Dismissing ISIS as a fringe group within Islam is NOT going to solve anything. France, United States and Russia may be attacking Syria right now to cripple ISIS, but as long as the ideology and mentality of Muslims are not rectified, there will never be an end to Islamist terrorism.

Malaysia is currently witnessing the progress of an ongoing Islamisation. According to Marina Mahathir, she aptly coined the term ‘Arabisation’ in referring to Malaysian Muslims in adopting the Arab culture, ideology and tribalism attitude.

With more and more narrow minded view of Islam being practiced, not only are the Muslims in Malaysia being affected, even the non-Muslims as well. Just think of all the pathetic issues that has been brought up by the religious authorities just within a year ago; like the houses in Langkawi resembling a Christian Cross (shall we ban the letter ‘T’ all together in Malaysia?), Terengganu and other States banning vape, but only after the National Fatwa Council deemed it Haram for Muslims (so now religious authorities decide our health care?), dress code issue in Government departments and even in sports when Farah Ann Abdul Hadi a double gold medallist gymnast was criticised for her standard leotard outfit and accused of being too revealing.

Malaysia’s growing Islamism is also affecting our neighbouring country Singapore. Dr Nawab Osman, from Nanyang Technology University, said a puritanical mind-set and intolerance has begun to seep into Singapore and Malaysia was one of the main contributing factors.

Thankfully there are still people out there bold enough to voice out their discontent. G25, an organisation which consist of retired civil servants and influential leaders initially appeared in the spotlight on December 2014 asking for a rational dialogue on the position of Islam and Islamic law in Malaysia. When Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, a spokeswoman for G25, had spoken about the need to review shariah laws that interfered in Muslims personal lives, she received multiple threats and one of it included rape. When Datuk Zaid Ibrahim a former law minister released an article criticising the recent Court of Appeal decision on the unilateral conversion of Indira Gandhi’s children to Islam, is currently facing investigation under the Sedition Act.

So where are we right now on the ‘Islamism’ discussion? In the West, the so-called moderate Muslims are getting fantastic support from the regressive liberals. Debates are still going on trying to establish if Islam is a religion of peace or violence.

President Obama and most European leaders seem to reassure the Muslims that Islam is a religion of peace and has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism. However, this is not exactly helping the anti-Muslims sentiments in the West. With the latest Paris attacks and ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, true anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamophobia attacks are getting more common, not surprisingly. Innocent peaceful Muslims are becoming the victims, when the actual issue at hand is hiding behind a ‘hijab’. This is the exact reason why Donald Trump, a man with an insectoid neural connection which he proudly calls his brain can get an overwhelming support in the United States and many far right conservative parties in European countries are gaining momentum. But at least the conversations are going on.

In Malaysia, we are nowhere close to such dialogues. Muslims in this country are so sensitive to any form of criticism. As far as Muslims here are concerned, Islam is as good as ever and the West are the ones to be blamed for anything and everything. Oh yes, Jews to be more precise. It’s always the Jews. And Cola-Cola. And McDonalds.

Muslims in this country are more interested in talking about the terror committed by the Zionist regime in Israel rather than the atrocities committed by ISIS in Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria or Pakistani Taliban.

I wonder why?

I also wonder why Malaysia has six times the rate of Muslims leaving for battle in the Middle East as compared to Indonesia? Or why Malaysian Muslims are sending their children to ISIS children centre to be groomed and trained as ISIS fighters? Or why Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in 2014 asked his political party members to emulate the bravery of ISIS?

So is Islam inherently violent and needs an absolute reformation OR is it like any other religion where it has peaceful teaching as well as violent ones and it’s the followers thinking and mentality that needs reform. There is no reforming of Islam without reforming Muslims. Islam has to be subjected to criticism. It has to be challenged. It’s easy to dismiss any idea that is critical of Islam as ‘murtad’ or misguided. If we do not have this conversation, only the Islamist and Jihadist prevail, leaving the rest of peace loving Muslims under threat from anti-Muslim bigots and the terrorist themselves. In an open society, no idea can be above scrutiny, just as no people should be beneath dignity. We seriously need to talk about Islamism in Malaysia.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the view of Malay Mail Online.