Islam tops Malaysia’s long list of “sensitive subjects” that are forbidden from being raised in public but, over the last two weeks, it is as if nothing else can be discussed. Two dissimilar events have put religion on notice. One is the passage of an Islamic family law and the other is the forced burial, according to Muslim rites, of a Hindu soldier by Islamic authorities. Both

issues have questioned the role of an increasingly puritanical Islam in a multi-ethnic society.

Under Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s more liberal administration, long suppressed frustrations are rising to the surface. On one side, the debate is between Islamic fundamentalists who dominate the burgeoning Islamic Affairs Department that administers Shariah law and mostly western educated Muslim feminists who say the department has gone overboard in making new laws that discriminate against women and children.

Since the 1980s, they say, women’s position has gradually eroded. The latest is a new Islamic family law that makes divorce and polygamy easy and allows husbands to lay claim to the wife’s properties, even to the extent of freezing the bank accounts of former spouses and their children.

“Nowhere in the Islamic world is there a law that discriminates so thoroughly against women,” said Zainah Anwar, executive director of Sisters in Islam, a feminist movement that is spearheading a campaign to repeal the new law.

Likewise the forced burial of M Moorthy, a Hindu soldier claimed by the Islamic authorities to have converted to Islam, has sparked a storm. The public is demanding that the government amend the constitution to make civil law supreme over Islamic Shariah law. Islamic authorities gave M Moorthy a Muslim burial over the protests by his Hindu family, last week. Anger boiled over when Judge Raus Sharif washed his hands off, saying the civil court had no jurisdiction.

“We cannot allow a small group who are extreme in their views to dominate the nation’s social and religious life,” said Wong Kim Kong, a spokesman for the Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism (MCCBCHS).

The main opposition Democratic Action Party has called for a major review of Article 121(1A), which states that the civil courts shall have no jurisdiction in respect of “any matter”

within the jurisdiction of the Shariah courts.

In the case of the Islamic family law, a little more time was given but arms were twisted to ensure its passage in parliament, earlier this month, only to face an avalanche of protest from civil society groups. Restrictions against Malaysian Muslim men taking four wives have been eased and they no longer have to prove financial capacity or the ability to treat all wives fairly. Women’s groups are planning petitions, letter-writing campaigns and other strategies to put pressure on the government not to gazette the bill into law.

Experts say success for Badawi lies in tackling and resolving the racial and discriminatory policies that form the bedrock of Malay-sia’s so-called “happy” society. “Unless the deep-seated issues of racism and religious freedom are openly discussed and resolved Malaysians would continue to live in fear and suspicious of one another,” said S Arulchelvam, secretary general of the Socialist Party of Malaysia. — IPS