DEC 25 — It was inevitable from the beginning of this venture that we would arrive at this moment. From the very first letter by the yet-to-be-called G25 in late 2014, they already irked the religious authorities.
After all, they were “encroaching” on the latter’s territory and our ulamak of all varieties were not used to challenges by people of such prominence.
In that open letter, the group led by their now infamous spokesperson Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, called for debate and open dialogue on the application of Islamic law in Malaysia.
Like any activist of the Malaysian Resistance (to shamelessly borrow a trending Star Wars term), I was deeply moved by the inception of the G25 movement.
We activists are used to reading puerile remarks from political and religious leaders who use Malay racism and Islamofascism to win support from the masses. In fact, the level of discourse had reached a humiliating new low back then when the word “Allah” was declared off limits to non-Islamic faiths!
That particular fiasco earned us laughter even from the Saudis who are not known for their liberalism.
The G25 took a stand on a variety of issues. When Datuk Noor Farida delivered a lecture at the London School of Economics early this year, she denounced the depraved acts of our Islamofascist authorities such as body snatching (as in the Sgt M. Moorthy case) and the conversion of children by parents who had converted to Islam (such as the Indira Gandhi case in Perak).
Datuk Noor was also very passionate about the Nik Raina case. Nik is the manager of Borders bookstore who was targeted by the Islamofascists for stocking the book Allah, Liberty and Love by the controversial Muslim reformer, Irshad Manji. The infantile tactics of our religious authorities was a very sore point with G25.
The most recent manoeuvres by the G25 were the launch of the edited volume Breaking The Silence: Voices Of Moderation and the call to abolish the khalwat squads. Predictably, given the sexual obsession of our ulamaks, the latter caused a bigger backlash than the former.
The edited volume consisted of a series of essays (one of which is from your humble servant) on the Constitutional application of Islam from a variety of angles. This received scathing criticism from one Utusan Malaysia reviewer who did not really expound on his arguments as to why the essays were inadequate. It would be good to see one of the higher ulamaks such as Harussani Zakaria give a point by point critique of our thoughts.
As mentioned above, the issue which received a greater backlash from the Islamofascists was with regards to the G25 comment that the khalwat (close proximity squads or “Mat Skodeng” in colloquial parlance) be abolished. The reaction by religious authorities was louder than usual and the poisonous comments in social media were especially painful.
This is indeed very interesting if one considers these are the very same people who ceaselessly preach that Prophet Muhammad was “a mercy to the worlds” as per the Quranic designation (Chapter 21 Verse 107). Thekhalwat squads are anything but merciful.
They are sadistic monsters who take great delight in catching out their victims. In some cases, victims are forced to marry against their wishes. Videos of this religious voyeurism may be found on YouTube (search fortangkap basah) where these monsters record young people showing affection (hardly anything sexual) in public.
These videos are mercilessly posted on YouTube and these young people will never be rid of their shame. Perhaps the most perverse element in this entire process is that Mat Skodengs begin by calling outAssalamualaikum (peace be upon you) to their victims. Conveying peace is the last thing on their minds.
G25 was absolutely right in calling for these squads to be abolished. They have no place in a civilized society and are certainly destroying young lives in the process. This is a pivotal moment in G25’s venture because now they are directly confronting the operational aspects of Islamofascism. I stand with G25 and call upon all right-thinking Malaysians to do the same.
The future of our nation will be brighter for it.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
