‘Allah’ socks and shoes: Malaysia needs to put foot down on stamping out violent religious conservatism, say analysts

MOVE COULD BACKFIRE ON UMNO

While the analyst Mr Asrul Hadi said Dr Akmal’s actions could help UMNO gain Malay support, the impact will not last, especially at the ballot box.

“The fear Akmal had stoked in the non-Malay communities could be detrimental, especially with the party preparing for the Sabah state election. It certainly has created uneasiness among partner parties in the ruling coalition,” he said.

While Sabah must hold elections by December 2025, observers have said the state could hold snap polls as early as August this year, with some suggesting that UMNO’s performance there could be key to the floundering party’s political survival on the peninsula.

“Non-Malay support for the unity government could be tested if UMNO does not rein in leaders like Akmal,” Mr Asrul Hadi said.

Dr Azmi said UMNO’s apparently shifting stance on the socks issue could be another strategic move by its top brass to appease the other multiracial parties in the unity government that had grown increasingly critical of Dr Akmal.

“No doubt, this has been politicised, and much worse, it has become Malay versus Chinese or Malaya versus Sarawakian,” he said.

RISK OF RACIAL TENSIONS

Activists from Sabah and Sarawak, which pride themselves on racial and religious pluralism, had called for Dr Akmal and other individuals to be barred from entering the states for fuelling racial and religious tensions.

A Sarawak-based party has also called on the state government to back KK Super Mart and its Sarawakian founder KK Chai, calling the brand the state’s “business ambassador”.

While Dr Chai might have said the socks were brought in by mistake, people still questioned why more attention was not paid, and felt that this could therefore be a deliberate attack against Islam by non-Muslims, said Ms Afra.

“A big part of this politicisation of religion is the siege mentality, whereby certain actions are quick to be perceived as an attack against Islam,” she said.

“Along with this siege mentality comes the need to defend the religion and so those who were riled up by the issue felt the need to defend Islam whether through police reports, calling for a boycott, and in extreme cases, petrol bombs.”

Ms Afra said such incidents will contribute to some non-Muslims feeling unsafe and wary of retaliation, while others might use it as a reason to ridicule those offended for their “pettiness or paranoia”.

“They will then respond to such ridicule by once again saying that they or Islam are being attacked, therefore continuing the vicious cycle,” she said.

In the socks saga, at least two people have been charged for social media posts they made in response to the incident that were deemed insulting to Islam.

One of them, Chiok Wai Loong, had uploaded a Facebook post telling Muslims to stop being so sensitive over the issue. Others warned him against offending Muslims, and he eventually deleted his post and apologised in a video for his insensitivity.

Chiok, 35, was on Mar 22 sentenced to six months’ jail and fined RM12,000 (US$2,527), according to local news site Free Malaysia Today.

A “PAINFUL, DIFFICULT” PROCESS

In the bigger picture, Mr Anwar has stated his commitment to moderate Islamic principles and has touted his Madani framework as the foundation for a Malaysia that embraces diversity and respect for all, among other core principles.

While Mr Anwar has traditionally interacted mainly with conservative Islamic scholars, he is good at listening to others across the spectrum, including those who are more progressive, said Professor Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, who researches political Islam and Islamist movements at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

But Prof Ahmad Fauzi feels the prime minister will not be able to immediately curb what he calls the “Islamisation” of Malaysia, which he said has taken place for the past 40 years mainly due to a more conservative Islamic curriculum taught in schools.

“It’s going to be a very painful and difficult process because even within the establishment, there are already people who are very supportive of this conservative trend,” said Prof Ahmad Fauzi.

“So even though there are some others who realise the dangers that Malaysia is in, you have an equal number of people (who support it) in schools, established institutions and government departments.”

The professor said the trend has led people to become excessively sensitive to matters that do not actually pose a threat to Islam, in incidents that push the country on a “slippery slope” to violence.

“A lot of these incidents are still non-violent extremism, but there’s a thin line separating violent and non-violent extremism,” he said. “When we see shops getting petrol bombed and so on, that’s already violence.”

Ms Afra said this kind of “paranoia” involving matters of Islam has existed in Malaysia for a long time, stressing that more needs to be done to counter loud voices that seize every opportunity to politicise religion.

“Authority figures, be it the muftis, religious preachers, religious teachers, politicians, and even the sultans and religious councils in each state, should put in more effort to quell such voices and to warn the masses about the dangers of politicising religion,” she said.

“Greater space also needs to be made for discourses which place emphasis on rational thinking, the importance of social harmony, obeying the rule of law, and understanding the substance of religion rather than being fixated with just its form and symbols.”