Keadilan today chastised Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for doublespeak in stating that terrorism should not be equated with Islam while the government continues to detain the members of the so-called Malaysian Mujahideen Group (KMM) under the Internal Security Act.

We wish to reiterate that we do not condone any acts of individual or state-sponsored terrorism. However, we believe that those detained are entitled to have the allegations made against them adjudicated in a court of law, said Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in a statement today.

We believe that the best prevention against political violence is the establishment of credible democratic processes, respect for dissent and human rights and a transparent and accountable government. Unfortunately, the ruling coalition in Malaysia is doing the very things that subvert all these, Wan Azizah said.

While speaking to reporters at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Queensland, Australia, Abdullah who is also home minister, said that Islam should not be equated with terrorism even though the perpetrators of the Sept 11 attacks on the US were Muslims.

It has become common to link Islam with terrorism. Although we agree that there are Muslim terrorists, not all Muslims are terrorists, Abdullah said last Saturday.

However, Wan Azizah said, The Islam bogey is habitually used to scare and divide Malaysians. We call upon Abdullah to refrain from making pronouncements not to equate terrorism to Islam, and take every action that supports that belief."

The government last year began a wave of arrests against suspected members of the KMM which also included the son of PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat, Nik Adli. The police have claimed that the KMM members were planning to overthrow the government by militant means to form an Islamic state.

Seventeen KMM members have been detained under the Internal Security Act since last June.

Islam bogey

She also took the opportunity to lambast the Information Ministry for showing clips of the 1985 Memali tragedy as well as the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The Information Ministry has been cultivating fear of Islam by repeatedly showing video clips of the excesses of the Taliban government on TV and screening the edited version of the Memali incident, Wan Azizah said.

The programme was shown over RTM several times earlier this year earning the ire of opposition party PAS.

The tragedy in November 1985 began when the government tried to arrest Ustaz Ibrahim Libya  a PAS member who had been branded by state religious authorities as a deviationist religious thinker  and his followers at the Memali village in Kedah.

Eyewitness reports claimed that nearly 4,000 security and armed forces personnel surrounded the village, along with armoured cars and trucks.

When Ibrahim and his followers resisted the troops with force, the troops opened fire, killing Ibrahim along with 14 of his followers. Four security personnel were also killed.