Malaysia’s crackdown on insulting Islam: divine inspiration from Pakatan Harapan?

Opposition parties milking pro-Muslim sentiments have teamed up against Mahathir’s government, which is struggling to realise its election pledges

But a new initiative to police insults against Islam looks like an effort to tip the scales back in the government’s favour

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The Jameh Masjid in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:37pm, 20 Mar 2019Updated: 12:12pm, 22 Mar 2019

As Malaysia’s ruling Pakatan Harapan government contends with a marriage of convenience between the two largest opposition parties, pressure is mounting on it to show it can defend the interests of Malay-Muslims, who make up 75 per cent of voters.

Enter a new initiative to crack down on insults against Islam. On March 7, the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim), the country’s most powerful Islamic affairs agency, set up a special unit to police insults against Islam on social media and other platforms.

Each complaint would be scrutinised and legitimate ones reported to the police or the communications regulator, said Deputy Minister Fuziah Salleh, who is overseeing the unit.

In just a week, the complaints body received 10,000 reports and as of Wednesday, it had 13,498 reports.

The agency’s creation came soon after a 22-year-old Malaysian, whose details were withheld by the authorities, was given an unprecedented sentence of 10 years for posting content online that insulted Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, a decision that lawyers said went against the rule of law.