BANGI, May 9 ― Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) insisted today that the Federal Constitution has identified Malaysia as Islamic, contrary to arguments the country is secular.
The Islamist group added that the federal government must therefore roll out hudud law in the “interest of national security” and apply it to all, not just Muslims as the PAS-led Kelantan state government desires.
“According to the Federal Constitution, the identity of Malaysia is Islam. Malaysia is an Islamic country and not secular. Attempts by parties to challenge this fact must be opposed,” Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman told reporters at its office here.
“The idea of a Malaysian Malaysia, secularism, is a deviation in the context of shaping the country's future... we have to go back to the country's original identity,” he added.
Abdullah also maintained that the country's non-Muslim citizens, whom he whom he has repeatedly and unapologetically labelled “immigrants” have no right to question or object to how Malays and Muslims want Malaysia to be shaped.
“This cannot be questioned by any immigrant race... they have to accept the special position of Malays and Bumiputera as the sovereign race in this country,” he said.
Abdullah said hudud ― the strict Islamic law that prescribes amputation and death by stoning for crimes such as theft and adultery ― would serve as an effective deterrent in tackling crime and benefit all Malaysians.
He also reiterated that non-Muslims, especially the Chinese should not go “overboard” in meddling over issues which concerned the Muslim community.
“What I have said was not seditious, it is an important call… we must look back at history when framing the country's future,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah said on Wednesday the Chinese were considered intruders into Malay land, and had been brought by British colonialists to oppress Malays.
The hard-core Islamist group has been raising its public profile over the past one year with its provocative remarks against Malaysia’s racial and religious minorities.
In February, Isma vice-president Muhammad Fauzi Asmuni was investigated for sedition after he allegedly called on Muslims nationwide to be aggressive when defending Islam.
No charges have been made.
The group had previously claimed that Indians and Chinese were brought into the country to weaken the Malay identity and undermine the community’s birthright to Tanah Melayu on the pretext of multiculturalism.
