Mahathir and Perlis Mufti are discussing Wahhabism in Malaysia

Mahathir and Perlis Mufti are discussing Wahhabism in Malaysia

August 5, 2018 

Raggie Jessy

The youth will account for 50 percent of the voting population come the 15th general election (GE15) with Muslims making up almost 73 percent of their numbers.That explains why Dr Mahathir Mohamad is all gung-ho about wanting to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18. His only concern this very moment is the possibility that the number of Tahfiz schools in Malaysia will mushroom to points that could jeopardise his plans to liberalise Islam and keep the Muslim youth ‘modernised’. To anticipate the possibility, he has begun consorting with Perlis Mufti Dato’ Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin on ways to introduce Wahhabism in Malaysia.

THE THIRD FORCE

In the early centuries of Islamic history, it became clear that Muslims failed to create and maintain a truly Islamic society following the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The failure led to periodic calls for there to be a tajdid, or the renewal of commitment to the fundamental principles of Islam and the associated reconstruction of society in accordance with the Quran and Hadith. These calls were made in reverence of a well-known philosophy held by the Prophet Muhammad that “God will send to His community at the head of each century those who will renew its faith for Him.”

Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak is one such individual who the Muslim youth completely misunderstood prior to the 14th general election (GE14). He assumed leadership of the nation at a time the non-Muslims were scrutinising the Islamic Penal Code as if the laws of Islam concerned them. He feared that the scrutiny would lead the impressionable young to feel ashamed of being Muslims and assume carefree lifestyles just to blend in with the rest of society. It is for this reason, above all, that he decided to institutionalise Tahfiz education in Malaysia with hopes that his efforts would lead the youth back towards the path of the Prophet Muhammad.

And that made sense.

As with every other Mujaddid, Najib knew that a devout Muslim was a well informed Muslim and that the well informed would never succumb to pressures exerted by the enemies of Islam. In a sense, the institutionalisation of Tahfiz education was meant to nip in the bud what amounted to the decay of Islamic values in Malaysia. Everything would have gone as planned had it not been for Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a man who has since made it his life mission to liberalise Islam and simplify Islamic observances in ways that would keep Muslims carefree and ‘modernised’.

He knows that the pulse of the nation is loudest among the youth, who, prior to the 14th general election (GE14), accounted for 33.5 percent of the voter population. He is aware that 61.5 percent of that segment were Muslims who weren’t as fanatically inclined towards UMNO as the veterans were. That explains why he accused UMNO of supporting Islamic laws that sought only to “chop the people’s hands off.” Like the DAP, he understood that the general election could only be won if Pakatan Harapan succeeded in scaring the bejesus out the youth to swing 20 percent of the Muslim vote in its favour.

Well, guess what?

That’s precisely what the youth segment to the Muslim voter population works out to if you care to do the math. It follows, that Pakatan Harapan won the general election not because the Chinese were united against Barisan Nasional but because Mahathir succeeded in turning the Muslim youth against UMNO. He plans to keep this segment opposed to UMNO for as long as he can by impressing upon its members that the Barisan Nasional component party is fundamentalist and extremist. He is well aware that the youth will account for 50 percent of the voting population come the 15thgeneral election (GE15) with Muslims making up almost 73 percent of their numbers.

Although a projection based on the entire Malaysian population, the ratios above give you an idea of what the youth composition will look like come the 15th general election (GE15) 

In a manner of putting it, GE15 will be more a “Muslim youth poll” than it will be a “public poll.” That explains why Mahathir is all gung-ho about wanting to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18. His only concern this very moment is the possibility that the number of Tahfiz schools in Malaysia will mushroom to points that could jeopardise his plans to liberalise Islam. To anticipate the possibility, he has begun consorting with Perlis Mufti Dato’ Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin on ways to introduce Wahhabism in Malaysia.

And I kid you not.

For those who haven’t a clue, Wahhabists are deviationists who subscribe to a brand of Islam that contradicts the fundamental teachings of the Sunnah. Asri spends a lot of his time in Mahathir’s home these days to tutor the Prime Minister on ways of the vile cult. The duo has already discussed ways to issue a fatwa meant to simplify the morning prayer to a considerable extent. Once the fatwa is out, Mahathir will use it as an excuse to demonise Tahfiz schools should the school administrators decide to ignore him altogether. And what happens thereafter is something I think you’re intelligent enough to figure out for yourselves…