Islamaphobes?

GEORGE TOWN, June 10 ― A coalition of Muslim groups here want Putrajaya to retain the Sedition Act 1948 and reject the three national harmony laws that they allege were drafted by “Islamaphobes” and detrimental to Malays and Islam.

The groups gathering under the umbrella body of Pertubuhan Pembela-pembela Islam (Pembela) also claimed the proposed laws would cause “chaos” in Malaysia, but did not elaborate on the nature of this chaos.

“All these three bills contained elements of ‘Islamophobia extremism’ that are anti-Malay and anti-Islam,” said Pembela chairman Mohamed Hafiz Mohamed Nordin in a press conference at noon today.

He explained that the term was in retaliation to what he called the frequent labelling of Malay-Muslim groups as “extremists” by their non-Muslim counterparts, including those in the federal body that drew up the bills.

“The way these three bills are drafted by a small group of people in the working committee of the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) is worrying and against how bills are conventionally drafted,” Mohamed Hafiz claimed.

He claimed that the draft bills were drafted by just three people and did not undergo proper consultation or detailed discussions between relevant parties before they were handed over to Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri.



Last week, the NUCC proposed three bills - Racial and Religious Hate Crimes Bill, National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill and National Harmony and Reconciliation Commission Bill — to replace the Sedition Act.

Putrajaya announced two years ago that it plans to repeal the colonial era law.

Today, Mohamed Hafiz also expressed concern over contents of the bills that he claimed contained anti-Malay and anti-Islam elements.

“These proposed bills were presented as promoting unity but in actual fact, these bills will only cause a deeper rift between races and religion in the country especially in emphasising on equality without taking into consideration the ‘positive discrimination’ principles,” he said.

He claimed the draft bills also sought to incite hatred and anti-Malay sentiments by describing the Malay and Bumiputera special privileges under the Federal Constitution as “discrimination” and “racial superiority”.

He said all three draft bills also set aside the position of the Islam as the religion of the federation as well as that of the Malay Rulers.

He then extolled the benefits of retaining the Sedition Act that he said was needed to protect the foundation of the country by ensuring Articles 153, 152, 181 and Part III of the Federal Constitution are protected.

“Article 153, 152, 181 and Part III of the Federal Constitution are what the non-residents agreed to in order to become citizens of Malaya then, so to go against this agreement after so long can only be interpreted as a deliberate action to undo the agreement that was long agreed upon,” he said.

Article 153 refers to the special position of the Malays and Bumiputera in Malaysia, Article 152 pertains to Malay as the national language, while Article 181 refers to the sovereignty of the rulers; Part III deals with the conditions for citizenship in the country.

Mohamed Hafiz, who was accompanied by members from other Muslim NGOs, said they will seek to meet the prime minister to submit their objections against the repealing of the Sedition Act and the proposed harmony bills.

A Muslim welfare NGO president Ismail Mina Ahmad said there is no place for such “liberal” bills to be implemented in the country.

“Liberalism has not context in Malaysia as liberalism is against Islam and if we have too much of liberal politics, the whole country will end in chaos and rife,” he warned.

The Malay Mail