Author: Amrita Malhi, ANU

Since Friday 8 January, arsonists and vandals have attacked ten churches around Malaysia. Four arson attempts took place on the same morning, following the conclusion of a two-year case before Malaysian courts, over whether non-Muslims can be prevented from using the term ‘Allah’ to describe God in the Malay language.

In 2007, the Home Ministry banned the term in the Catholic Herald newspaper, arguing it could confuse Muslims and cause offence, threatening national security. Read more…

Author: Amrita Malhi

A recent article by ‘reformed terrorist’, Tawfik Hamid, accuses Muslims worldwide of hypocrisy in their reactions on Palestine.

Hamid’s article implicitly poses one important question: why is Palestine such an important issue for Muslims around the world? Why does it set off protests in Southeast Asia, so far away? During the January Gaza bombing, Islamists closed down Indonesia’s only synagogue, and the Malaysian Muslim Consumers’ Association called for boycotts on a hundred American products in protest.

Far away from the conflict, Southeast Asian Muslims hear about the destruction in mosques, watch it on their screens, and sympathise with the Palestinians. Do these Muslims feel a genuine stake in Gaza? Do their protests, as Hamid insinuates, come from a global Islamic tendency towards hatred, rage and bigotry?

Whatever the case may be, there are more salient reasons. Read more…

Guest Author: Amrita Malhi, ANU

The Malaysian national and state elections on 8 March 2008 surprised all observers.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, lost its two-thirds majority in the federal parliament, and a coalition of secular and Islamist opposition parties, Pakatan Rakyat, won five state governments.

The election saw Malaysia’s ethnic voting patterns break down to an unprecedented extent.

Pakatan leader Anwar Ibrahim heralded the result as a ‘New Dawn’ for Malaysian politics. Pakatan’s rise seemed to finally enable the creation of a new politics that could somehow unite both Islamists and liberal cosmopolitans against ethnic and religious political manipulation.

Very quickly however, the possibility of a genuine political challenge to Barisan began to fade.

Read more…