In a bizarre turn of events over the weekend, the Bar Council's small public forum, 'Conversion to Islam', fizzled out even before it had hardly begun.

Now the organisers are being threatened with detention under the draconian ISA (Internal Security Act) which provides for indefinite detention without trial.

The spanner in the works was thrown by the increasingly "Islamic" police, for want of a better term, after a rag-tag bunch of protesters, about 100 in all, had gathered noisily outside the venue claiming to represent 19 NGOs opposed to the forum.

The function had long been in the making, following an increasing spate of disturbing trends in the courts involving religious conversions. The civil courts, largely packed with Muslims, the forum's organisers decided, tended to lean towards the syariah (the path of God) court in their deliberations which involve conversions to Islam.

Citing ‘security' as a reason, the police advised the Bar Council to call off the forum although they could have just as easily advised the protesters to drop their poppycock and move along or risk being arrested for an illegal assembly.

In the past, the police have not hesitated to throw the book at other protesters for even minor infringements of the law involving so-called illegal assemblies. Had the protesters been non-Muslims, it is a certainty that the police would have quickly herded them into trucks like common criminals and have them brought to court the next day.

In previous cases, the police have even included such bizarre charges as attempting to murder a policeman, among other charges, against street protesters. The policeman in question had been injured when he strayed too far from his colleagues, became isolated from them, tripped and fell after he was caught in a stampede among the protesters as they ran helter-skelter. Naturally, he didn't look a pretty sight after the melee was over.

bar council islamic forum controversy inccident 090808 04 The ‘security threat' at the Bar Council forum was posed by a lone demonstrator in the green and white Malay Student Front (GPMS) shirt, breaking into the forum's proceedings and announcing: "I represent Umno. Stop this forum. Don't insult Islam." He also added, as if to cite his credentials: "You! Chinese, Indians, go to hell!"

International Islamic University law lecturer Dr Mehrun Siraj, a participant at the forum and an Indian Muslim, responded: "Open discussion is the way to discuss the issues between Muslims and non-Muslims." She added as well: "Don't insult Islam."

"It is curious that two Muslims should have different ideas about what can be perceived as an insult to Islam," commented one blogwriter. "This is like viewing the issue from different ends of the municipal drainpipe."

Politicising a thorny issue

It is interesting to note that the forum itself wasn't a direct challenge to Islam, Islamic fundamentalists, Islamists, Muslims and Malays, but had everything to do with non-Muslims and non-Malays.

The issue of conversion to Islam is a hornet's nest among non-Muslims because of its potential to break up families and set brother against brother, sister against sister, and parents against children and vice versa.

The reverberating effects of the conversion issue among non-Muslims were seen during the March 8 general election when the opposition wrested five states, one federal territory and 82 seats in Parliament, denying the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition the much-coveted two-thirds majority for the first time in 50 years.

The consensus of opinions among non-Muslims, and many pious Muslims as well, is that there are more than a few non-genuine conversions to Islam in Malaysia, and this where the difficulties arise in law.

"Conversion to Islam isn't really the sacred cow that it is made out to be by Islamic fundamentalists," ventured a senior lawyer from Klang who missed the Bar Council forum.

"Generally, some conversions in Malaysia are almost completely sham affairs, as evident from numerous court cases where the convert chose to return to the original faith after either the marriage fell apart or the death of the spouse."

That does not deter from the fact that most Muslim/non-Muslim marriages end in both parties degenerating into murtad (apostates). This is by no means an exhaustive scientific study but a general observation of conversions throughout Malaysia - from Kuala Lumpur to Dayak kampungs in Sarawak and the Kundasang Highlands in Sabah - and a consensus on the issue among Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Blame the growing number of murtad on the laws, bad ones at that, that insist on a non-Muslim's conversion to Islam in the event of a marriage to a Muslim partner. At one time, the law was seen as being all about politics, a numbers game given the fine balance between Muslim and non-Muslim voters.

Today, it has become a convenient prohibition against Muslims leaving the political faith, as it would surely happen if the laws were repealed. Hence, the advent of political Islam, politics under the guise of jihadism. Even isolated Dayak settlements in Sarawak which converted to Islam in the period before 1981, for example, continue with their pork-eating and moonshine-swilling ways in the jungle.

Is this why the forum got the hackles up among a vociferous minority of what can be described as common hoodlums and drew adverse comments from several ministers? Is this the specter of "insult" as raised by the protestor who burst kamikaze-style into the proceedings of the forum?

"Surely, this is politicising the religion while relegating the faith itself to a minor role," said an elderly Muslim ex-policeman who makes nasi lemak at home and distributes them around the teh tarik (tea) stalls in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. "The pious and God-fearing would have preferred an open, honest debate on the direction the faith is taking."

Complex interplay of ethics and politics

convertion forum protest 090807 mini posters The "credentials" of the demonstrators, swelled at one time by curious passers-by to about 300 and reported by the mainstream media as 1,000, were evident in the insults hurled.

A more printable sampling: babi (pig), pengkhianat (traitor), obviously aimed at the Muslim participants, and balik Cina (go back to China). No one cried balik India , not knowing whether the Indian participants were Muslims or otherwise.

Four-letter words and otherwise colourful language, nothing Islamic, mixed with the usual slogans heard at the form: Hancur Bar Council (Crush Bar Council); Hidup Islam (Long live Islam); Batal forum (Cancel the forum); Jangan cabar Islam (Don't challenge Islam) and "Bar Council, Don't play with fire".

The protesters claimed to be from the Muslim welfare organsation Perkida, PAS, Lawyers in Defence of Islam (Pembela), Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma), and Muslim Consumer Association, among others.

It was hard to verify the claims since the lone protester who broke into the forum's proceedings claimed to be from Umno but was clad in the green and white GPMS shirt.

The ministers in unison, the non-Muslims being conspicuously absent, held forth that the forum was highly sensitive, wholly unnecessary - what else is new? - and if held, should in any case, be behind closed doors (it was), probably to avoid "confusing the Malays".

It seems that almost everything is considered unnecessary with many of the BN ministers, although they pay the usual lip service to the right of free speech, assembly, human rights and democracy. However, all these sanctimonious pontification are subject to the politicisation of Islam and very little to do with defending the sanctity of the faith itself.

US-based writer Ayesha Jalal in her book, Partisans of Allah - Jihad in South Asia , offers this thought-provoking view: "The idea of jihad is central to Islamic faith and ethics, and yet its meanings have been highly contested over time. They have ranged from the philosophical struggle to live an ethical life to the political injunction to wage war against enemies of Islam. Today, more than ever, jihad signifies the political opposition between Islam and others, especially the West."

Analysing the complex interplay of ethics and politics in Muslim history, the author effectively demonstrates the pre-eminent role of jihad (political) in the Muslim faith today.

Many observers think the issue here is what is Islam, what is a Muslim, what is syariah? "Instead, what passes off as Islam, Muslim and syariah are exercises in political expediency in the Muslim countries," observed a senior political analyst, a fallen Christian who takes a dim view of conversion to any religion.

"Christianity may have gone through a somewhat similar political phase in the past. But Christianity is not the issue here in Malaysia. Political Islam is."

JOE FERNANDEZ is an educationist and former newspaper editor and ex-civil servant who feels compelled to put pen to paper when something doesn't quite jell with his weltanschauung (worldview).