Islam Hadhari is rather a hit in the island republic of Singapore. The Straits Times (ST) has followed the lead of the New Straits Times (NST) in extolling the triumph of ‘progressive Islam’. In the process, the 2004 general election has been simply whittled down as a battle between Umno Islam and PAS Islam.

There appears to be no distinction in the reporting between the two newspapers on this. NST however, in a post election editorial, raised a speculation of PAS resorting to militancy in a “bitter harvest”. That journalistic licence is apparently not founded on historical facts.

Dr Farish A Noor responded to a question on radical Islam during a public seminar on July 15 at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (Ikmas), based in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He is currently with the Zentrum Moderne und Orient, Berlin.