Malaysia: Islamic steps forward?

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Malaysia | 19 June 2018

The groundbreaking defeat of UMNO does not mean that Islamists and their political allies are down and out, reported UCA News on 23 May 2018. Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research (WWR), cautions: "It needs to be kept in mind that opposition Islamic Party PAS benefitted from the UMNO defeat as well and even managed to regain control of a second state government, Terengganu. As UMNO needs to re-organize and re-shuffle, it is very possible that its new leaders will decide to follow a more conservative Islamic line, trying to retain public support and votes." Thomas Muller continues: "Slurs for religious reasons are still common and were evident in last month"s elections: Anonymous accusations were published against Christian politician, Hannah Yeoh, stating that she had a purely missionary agenda, as reported by Malay Mail Online on 30 May 2018. Another example of a slur was reported by Asian Correspondent on 1 June 2018, where Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed was cited as saying that civil servants who supported UMNO might have a loyalty to the party and its ideology, but not to Malaysia as a whole. Clearly the new government needs to tread its path carefully."