Why Malaysia is a potential Isis target

Just over a week ago, the biggest attack by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or more appropriately called Daesh, its Arabic acronym, happened on European soil.

It is difficult to tell what Daesh really is, but one thing seems certain – it are recruiting thousands of gullible Muslims from all over the world.

News reports said there are up to 100,00 Daesh supporters in Syria. Malaysia has the shame of having at least 50 Daesh fighters, a few of whom have been celebrated as martyrs, but will Malaysia soon be a target?

I believe there are two main reasons this will be the case. The two reasons are paradoxical to each other, but together they will push the situation over the edge.

The first reason is, for the last three and a half decades, Malaysia has been hothousing Islamofascist elements. These elements, like Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) or its previous incarnations, have been given too much power and influence.

With the draconian measures they exert over Malay-Muslims, it is no wonder they can think that Daesh is Islamic. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself agreed that there was indeed compulsion in Jakim’s Islam.

The second reason follows the first – while Malaysia has been hothousing these elements, our levels of corruption and misgovernance have only increased. As such, the Islamofascists see the government as a “kufr system” which must be brought to its knees.

Last week, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said that Malaysian ministers were high on Daesh’s hit list.

I highly doubt that is the case because of two facts – Daesh is not a high profile assassination type group and two, Malaysian ministers are so laughably unpopular that people would not be affected if that actually happened.

Daesh recruits may be incredibly gullible but rest assured, its leaders are not. Hishammuddin’s announcement was probably to show to the public that the government is committed to fighting terrorism.

Be that as it may, the government was also guilty of hothousing extremist elements to the point of the nation splitting in half. This did not begin with the present administration, to be fair, but Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s government is probably the worst when it comes to handling it.

The presence of Islamofascist elements within his administration, perhaps his own Prime Minister’s Department was clear when he praised the quick rise of Daesh last year.

In any case, the Islamisation in Malaysia has prepared the ground, if you will, for the rise of Malaysian Jihadis.

This does not mean that Islamisation is a bad thing but sadly, the hands off approach the government practised and also, simply throwing money at the situation (Jakim’s budget was nearly RM1 billion!) has exacerbated the problem tremendously.

Take our religious authorities and their officers. The way they conduct raids are so appalling yet they are allowed to continue. These people would be Daesh if not for two things – they’re held back by civil law and are unarmed.

Thank Allah for that.

We now come to the second reason Malaysia may be a potential Daesh target.

Paradoxically, while the government has been guilty of hothousing elements of Daesh, they are also guilty of incurring the wrath of the Islamofascists.

The Islamofascists, it must be remembered, are out to establish an Islamic state and the government, although pandering to Islamisation for political purposes, remains a stumbling block to their vision.

This being the case, they see the government as the enemy which must be removed. Before PAS became the stalwart supporters of Umno (back when they considered voting for Umno to be an act of disbelief), they too considered Umno to be the barrier between them and the Islamofascist state.

It is no surprise that some of their top brass praised the dead Malaysian Daesh fighters as martyrs. They are cut from the same cloth.

More ominously, there now seems to be a rise of Malaysian Daesh supporters in the social media. These supporters oppose Umno and even PAS and consider these two to be too moderate for them.

Rather, they believe in the philosophy of offensive jihad and the total establishment of the Islamofascist state. The levels of corruption and misgovernance have only served to stir their emotions even further.

The latest outrage was caused by the alleged misuse of funds by Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Malaysia (Yapeim) and spending vast amounts of money to fly ministers abroad to teach marriage courses – something many consider to be the flimsiest of excuses to have a free holiday.

The response by Daesh supporters observed in the social media show that Malay-Muslims do not preclude them as a political option to overthrow Umno.

Malcolm X is famous for many reasons but one of them is the saying “chickens coming home to roost”, meaning you reap what you sow. This is exactly the situation to describe us just now.

After nurturing Islamofascism for our own nefarious reasons over such a long period, these elements have now mutated furthered into the form of Daesh.

Daesh is the most dangerous Islamofascist threat we have ever faced and unless we completely remove Islamofascist elements from our political life, the consequences will be severe. – November 25, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.