I am confused: Am I living in an Islamic state?

These were the words of our Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak

‘Malaysia is an Islamic state and not a secular one’
‘Islam is the official religion and we are an Islamic state’
‘We have never been secular…’

I am confused?

I have read about the Reid Commission responsible for drafting the Constitution and how we were taught taught in school about the equality and human rights and that we were (at least until last week) not an Islamic state.

Our first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman said on the occasion of his 80th birthday as reported by the Star in February, 1983.:

‘The country has a multi-racial population with various beliefs. Malaysia must continue as a secular State with Islam as the official religion’.

Tunku was not alone.

This how the report in the Star reads :

‘Former Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn has supported Tunku Abdul Rahman’s view that Malaysia should not be turned into an islamic state…”The nation can still be functional as a secular state with Islam as the offical religion,” he said’

[Source: The People's Parliament]

Looking at Islamic states today in the other parts of the world, not only am I confused, I am also afraid. Afraid of what the future would be here. I am not surprised when many if my friends tells me they are either in the process of emigrating, planning to emigrate , thinking of it and for those who are not so well-off, dreaming about it. Anyone not in any of the above state of mind - raise your hands! Wonder how many hands we will see.

How do you feel? Confused as I am?

Perhaps if we all read and learn about our Constitution, we will be less confused. Not sure if our politicians ever read them - I doubt it. You might want to read it and send a copy to them for them to read.

I think you can purchase it from the Malaysian Law Journal or some of the following sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Malaysia
http://confinder.richmond.edu/admin/docs/malaysia.pdf
http://www.pogar.org/publications/other/constitutions/malaysia-e.pdf
http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/Citizen/LegalMatters/Constitution/**
http://www.virtualmalaysia.com/our_malaysia/government/constitution.cfm**
**Cannot find the Constitution proper, let me know if you can find it

More readings at The Malaysian Bar Council