Malays have often poured scorn over Islamophobia in the West. But in Malaysia we have the reverse Islamophobia where a Malay official in a chess tournament can rule that the short skirt worn by a 12-year old competitor was too tempting for others, while in a similarly bizarre comment, a PAS ulama said the main reason his party pulled out of PKR is because of a foreign singer Selena Gomez being allowed by the Selangor government to perform to the public here.
Girls, clothes and music in Malaysia are often the target for religious bigotry, which is like the religious dictatorship of the few over the majority.
This is far worse than the racial and religious profiling in the West. There in the West, the bigotry can be challenged under the constitutional guarantees on human rights. In Malaysia, the bigotry is open ended - anyone can criminalise the dress or behaviour of a girl or a singer and get away scot-free if he uses Islam as the reason for his action. Those who disagree with this abuse of religion to impose social restrictions on our personal life are accused as enemies of Islam, with no hope for protection under the law because under syariah law, its so easy to classify a particular behaviour under the concept of "against the precepts of Islam".
The court has the power to penalise those charged for wearing short skirts or those who defend the right of the poor girl to wear the skirt if the judge deems it "against the precepts of Islam". That's why we should first look at how Muslims are treated in our own country before talking about the Islamophobia in the West.
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