Moves by the Umno-led government to purportedly 'defend' Islam and Malays in order to secure their votes has led to the Islamic authorities to throw greater weight around to impose their dictates, said a human rights report.

The report for 2010, published by Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) said that the trend of heightened religious politicisation, which escalated after the March 2008 general election, escalated even further last year.

NONE “As politicisation of religion continues in Malaysia, the power and reach of Islamic religious authorities grow, dictating ‘morals’ and ‘norms’ and enforcing punishment.

“In one of the most regressive moves for human rights in Malaysia in 2010, three Muslim women were caned under Syariah law for the first time, despite civil law clearly stating that women cannot be caned,” the report read.

The report puts the blame of religious politicisation on the Home Ministry, citing several instances where it failed to act in a non-partisan manner.

NONE The report pointed out that when Selangor religious authorities suspended a surau committee for allowing a non-Muslim, Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching ( centre ), to visit, Home Minister (Hishammuddin Hussein) added salt to the wound by describing her visit as “dirty” and a “disaster”.

‘Double-standard response’

The report also pointed out that in contrast to the strong response on Muslim issues, the government was reluctant to act against those inflaming non-Muslim sentiments.

“In July 2010, one person was sentenced to a week in jail and eleven others were fined for carrying and abusing a slaughtered cow’s head (a sacred symbol in Hinduism) while protesting the relocation of a Hindu Temple in 2009,” it read.

It added that the Home Ministry had created this religious divide and continued to give it currency for political purposes as Umno vies for the Malay-Muslim vote, such as in the case of the ‘Allah’ word ban.

“This was seen most obviously with the home minister’s commitment to the highly controversial ban on non-Muslims using the word ‘Allah’, his effective endorsement of a protest against the court decision (to allow the word in Bibles), and his immediate appeal of this decision,” stated the report.

The report concluded that religious tensions have not abated and the country continues to slide down a slippery slope of racial-religious communal politics.

                            

“The ultimate goal for Umno is to increase its share of the Malay-Muslim vote, discrediting ideas that politics, and even daily life, can be truly multi-religious and multi-racial,” it added.