Chinese Muslims bear different views on hudud

comments     Beh Lih Yi     Published     Updated

Few will understand the meaning of 'minority' better than Chinese Muslims in Malaysia.

They number only between 55,000 and 60,000 and live in a peculiar situation. On one hand, though being Chinese, they are seen different from the others because of their religious affiliation. On the other hand, they are considered distinctive within the predominantly Malay Muslim community because of their ethnic origin.

The ancestry of Chinese Muslims in Malaysia could be traced back to the Hui in China, an ethnic group which had embraced Islam as its religion centuries ago, when a group of them migrated and settled down in Terengganu at the turn of the last century.

Due to a small and inter-related population, many of them began to practise inter-racial marriage with the local Malays in order to avoid in-breeding.

Today, there is a slow, but steady stream of Chinese who convert into Islam every year as the inter-racial marriage continues.

Yet, Chinese Muslims remain as a minority group who have little voice in many issues, even those concerning them such as the recent debate on whether hudud law is suitable for the country.

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