Malaysia – Islam and Terrorism

Malaysia is a country mostly made up of Muslim population, is recently facing the brunt of terrorism. Even though terrorism for once is not the sole monopoly of Islam and Islamic culture, this word has more or less been associated with this religion. For decades the country is plagued by the terror activities of the communist.

In recent years, terrorism in Malaysia has shifted from the militant and the guerilla warfare promoting communism to the radical Muslim outfits. This transition by far has been seen to have some association with the rise in global terrorism. So far, Jamaal Islamiyah is the most prominent terror outfit operating in the country.

In his speech, Prime Minister of Malaysia Abdullah Badawi in 2007 said that Western governments should come up with a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the occupation of Iraq. He called these problems to be the root cause of the rise in terrorism globally.

Most of the Muslims in the country are of the view that the social unrest that is cropping up is because of the clash of Islamic fundamental interests. Most of the time minority Christians and the Hindus in the country are the targets of terror attacks.

In the most recent violent incident that rocked the country in January 2010, Christian churches were burnt down and the people from the community were either tortured or killed. In this country, local Christians used the word Allah for God, this miss use of the word has been challenged and opposed by the hard-line Muslims, due to fear of conversions of Muslims to Christianity. This has been declared as an illegal practice in the country.

The communal violence that followed after the ruling made in December led to the mass attacks in the country. In all eleven Christian Churches, a Sikh Gurudwara, and a Mosque have been destroyed. Most of the minority communities and especially the Christian community had appealed to the Malaysian government to maintain peace and security in the country.

Until recently in march 2010, tensions remain high following the clashes between rival groups, leaving at least 5 people dead. This cycle of violence engulfed the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. In the serious troubled district of Kampung Medan alone as many as 150 people were arrested by the police.

For long the authority of the state has been trying to play down the ethnic violence in the country. Police and state machinery of the state are trying to crack down on the violence with their heavy presence. Minority community leaders blamed the gangs of machete-wielding Malay youths for the recent cold-blooded terror attacks.

Ethnic violence’s in the country is not new. Many people have died in the spate of violence in this coastal country since the outbreak of ethnic violence between the Chinese community and the local Malay youths in 1969. The government of the country may have denied the existence of extreme violence, but the fact speaks different language and exposes the false claim of the government.