“You concede nothing to me and I have to concede everything to you.”

- Thomas Hardy, ‘Jude the Obscure’

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang's rejoinder “that Muslims have the constitutional right to practise their religion without being disturbed by people of other religions" is the kind of mendacity that I wrote about a couple of months ago.

When it comes to Islam, Malay identity and oppositional politics, I clearly stated my stand - “I have argued that the non-Malay power structures are contributing to the indoctrination process by supporting Umno-enabled institutions thereby setting back any kind of progressive movement in the Malay community. Furthermore, I have been critical of opposition parties that have been reluctant to redefine and propagate ideas that are the exact opposite of the Umno narrative of what it means to be Malay and Muslim.”

What this means is that I will always be extremely sceptical of any political party that attempts to present a monolithic narrative about what it means to be Muslim and Malay in this country. I have also written about my disdain for the “true Muslim” meme that oppositional types like to propagate. This is why Hadi’s recent rhetoric is despicable.

The propaganda of Muslims in Malaysia under siege by “other religions or communities” is an old tactic but what is new is that the demonisation of other religions has become even more overt in recent times because of the acrimonious falling out between the DAP and PAS.

Talking about religion is always problematic which is why making it a political platform is always a double-edged sword. While this is especially true for Islam it also applies to those Christian politicians from Abrahamic troika that needlessly muddy the religious waters here in Malaysia.

Having said that, the reality is that the only people who find themselves disturbed by another religion are the non-Muslims. If there is a disparity in treatment, a lack of fairness, outright persecution or double standards, it is faced by non-Muslim communities.

Hadi claimed, “that teachings of the Quran were suitable for a country of multi-ethnic society because of the emphasis on fairness and brotherhood” and that this was different from the so-called divide and rule policies of our colonial masters.

Umno and PAS usually cherry-pick those "divide and rule policies" that are used as political platforms for their respective bases and form current-day policy in this country but what I would like to hone in on is the absurdity of Hadi’s claim (that he continues to make) about Islam and how it would work in a multi-ethnic society.

We already have evidence of how our dual-track justice system works in this country. We already have evidence of how the state treats its non-Muslim citizens when it comes to Islam in this country. Take a simple kidnapping case.

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar refused to carry out a court order because he claimed “he is conflicted” between the custody order of the syariah court and the civil court. In other words, a Muslim convert who had kidnapped his child was free from sanction for a time because the IGP chose not to act.

He finally did his duty when the Federal Court compelled him to - “We are of the view that this kind of conduct cannot be condoned. The administration of justice will be brought into disrepute if the court's order is wilfully disobeyed by a party against whom a warrant of committal had been issued after he was found guilty of contempt of court.”

In other words, a secular instrument (not to mention a colonial construct) had to compel a civil servant to do his duty because he claimed there was conflict with a religious instrument. By the way there wasn’t any conflict, but this is Malaysia and this is the IGP who spends more time patrolling the twitterverse for insults against the Umno establishment.

Observing religious sensitivities

Malaysians are warned about observing religious sensitivities. Religious sensitivities are especially important we are to maintain peace and harmony. It is so important that non-Muslims are constantly warned that they are ignorant of Islam and that they should not comment on matters that do not concern them. We should not insult their religion. We should not trespass on their places of worship. However, does this apply to Muslims?

Six years ago, journalists from Al-Islam magazine did an expose on what they claimed was Muslims illegally converting to Christianity. They went “undercover” to a church and wrote an article “describing how the journalists received and later spat out communion wafers.” Representatives from the Christian community complained with the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam, saying, “The journalists have displayed utmost disrespect for the Catholic community when they admit receiving and spitting out the Holy Communion."

The charges were dropped because as former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail claimed “The actions of the two reporters may have hurt the feelings of the people but I was satisfied that they did not intend to offend anyone. It was an act of sheer ignorance. Therefore, in view of the circumstances at that particular time and in the interest of justice, peace and harmony, I decided not to press any charges against them."

Can you imagine, and by “you” I mean any right-thinking Malaysian, what would have happened if a Catholic magazine had made a similar act of “ignorance” against the Muslim community. Would non-Muslims enjoy the same kind of state coddling? Would they enjoy the benefit of doubt and understanding from the state like the cow-head protestors had when then Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said, “They are not going (to be let off) scot-free. But they just feel victimised because they feel there is another valid explanation and had no intention to cause racial (divisions).”

Can anyone really argue that Islam and Muslims are victimised in this country? This is the country where non-Muslims are banned from using certain words - “In Selangor, the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988 passed by the then-BN state government prohibits non-Muslims in Selangor from using 35 Arabic words and phrases used in Islam, including ‘Allah’.”

I have said this before, “the political process has been about accommodation for far too long. The Umno and opposition establishments are invested in the status quo for differing reasons but the results are the same. A Muslim polity where the majority are narcotised by religious dogma.”

The meme that Muslims have to support syariah law is toxic. This idea that Hadi or PAS or Umno are the protectors of Islam and thus have the final say is false. The idea that Muslims in this country are on the receiving end of unfair treatment is a blatant lie.

My only question to people like Hadi is this. Can you guarantee that non-Muslims in Malaysia will never be subject to syariah law? Nobody will make that promise. As it stands, Islam is all pervasive in this country. For years, committed Islamists have attempted to control and redefine our public spheres and attempted to impose their dogma by means both overt and subtle.

They have succeeded.

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.