Under Islamist Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia now serves as a testing ground for the ideas and ambitions of a powerful American Islamist network based in Virginia. Ibrahim and his Western Islamist backers newfound power illustrates an important
An academic has questioned the stern action taken against the individuals involved in the kolam incident for causing racial disharmony but not against prominent figures with similar transgressions in the past
January 29, 2021
Hindu devotees carry milk pots on their heads as they gather at a shrine in Batu Caves during the 2019 Thaipusam celebrations in Kuala Lumpur.
Reuters
The cancellation of a public holiday for a Hindu festival in Malaysia’s Kedah state along with the country’s de facto Religious Affairs Ministry recently signalling that the country’s sharia law penalties could be strengthened – with the country’s LGBT community as one of the main targets –
have unsettled religious minorities and some moderate Muslims who worry the country is moving towards greater conservatism.
The Kedah chief minister’s decision to cancel the one-day public holiday on Thursday to celebrate Thaipusam, purportedly out of coronavirus fears, has come in for heavy criticism by Malaysian opposition MPs and former prime minister Najib Razak .