Wahhabi-Salafism and the Muslim Brotherhood in Malaysia: The Struggle for Domination

There is currently a power struggle unfolding between Wahabi-Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood in Malaysia. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Sunni Scholars, led by Parti Islam Se- Malaysia (PAS) president Abdul Hadi Awang, is butting heads with the Perlis State Mufti, Dr. Asri Asri Zainul Abiden, better known as Dr. Maza.

The recent banning of Dr. Maza from speaking at ceramahs (religious events) in the Kelantan State, which is controlled by PAS, indicates a deep theological rift between the two competing Islamist groups within Malaysia. Dr. Maza had also been previously banned from speaking in Terengganu and Selangor.

Growing Wahabi-Salafism

Over the last few decades, a minority of Malays have been adopting Salafist doctrines,  imported from Saudi Arabia. Salafism is a literalist interpretation of the Quran and Sunnah, which sees itself as restoring the pure Islamic faith and practice, emulating the practices of the Prophet Mohammad and his early followers.

It is important to note that Salafism is not a homogenous theology. There are a number of sub-groups that have branched out from traditional Athari Salafism, which adopts an apolitical approach so as to avoid the corrupt nature of politics. There is Tanzimi Salafism, for example, which accepts involvement in politics and organizations, and Jihadi Salafism, which advocates the use of violence to achieve its ends.

For his part, Dr. Maza promotes hybrid Salafism in the small conservative rural northern state of Perlis. The Perlis State Constitution defines the official religion of Perlis as Al-Sunnah Waljamaah (followers of the Quran and Sunnah), in contrast to Sunni Islam in other states. The Perlis ruler is the rightful head of Islam under the state constitution. Dr. Maza and former chief minister and now federal minister Shahidan Kassim enthusiastically re-established the Sunnah Perlis doctrine, regularly travelling across the country to preach in the early 2000s.

Dr. Maza, who studied religion in Jordan, was the youngest person to be appointed a mufti in Malaysia. He is an admirer and supporter of the fugitive Indian televangelist Zakir Naik, who is wanted by the Indian government for financing terrorism and incitement, among other things, and was banned by police from speaking at an event organized in Perlis, raising friction between Perlis religious authorities, the Royal Household, and police.

Funding

The Salafist movement has spent enormous amounts of money and resources on using social media as an outreach tool to college students, the youth in general, graduates, young professionals, academics, and other educated Malays. Salafist channels on Facebook and YouTube have more than 1.2 million followers.

Dr. Maza’s primary foundation is Petubuhan Yayasan Al-Qayyim Malaysia, and there are many other aligned groups including the International Khayr Ummah Foundation (IKAF), run by Dr. Fathul Bari, a conservative supporter of UMNO. These organizations are partly funded by Saudi Arabia, where the official creed has historically been Wahhabism, a state version of Salafism. The Saudis established a student scholarship program for study in Saudi Arabia, funded schools, and sent preachers and scholastic experts to Perlis. Other funds come from VVIPs, and corporate Zakat payments from the Perlis Malay Culture Department (MAIPs).

Leveraging Alumni

However, the most effective tool Wahabi-Salafists use is the Alumni. According to the former Executive Director of the Institute of Islamic Research (IKSIM) Ulama Engku Ahmad Fadzil, the Alumni is made up of a group of graduates from both local, British, Saudi, and Jordanian universities, who returned home and joined the civil service, armed forces, religious organizations, schools, and universities. Some enjoy prominent positions in Fatwa Councils, JAKIM (the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia), and state religious organizations.

For the most part, Alumni are highly intelligent, articulate, educated, connected, and don’t necessarily disclose their true beliefs and inclinations in the interest of exerting influence over the ideas of others. This group also protects the image of the movement and, according to an inside informant, every member of the Alumni is given an allowance of RM5,000 per month, which increases over time, to propagate the faith, primarily funded by Saudi Arabia. This is in addition to the salaries they earn from their jobs.

New Racism

Alarmed critics accuse Dr. Maza of redefining the concept of racism away from the Malay supremacy ideology of Ketuanan Melayu, towards the Kafir Harbi ideology, which discriminates against non-Muslims to such an extreme extent that it says they do not even have the right to live. Even Dr. Maza’s comrade Maszlee Malik, former education minister in the previous Pakatan Harapan government, claimed this was divisive and polarizing back in 2016.

Dr. Maza’s comments that Malaysia is for the Malays have angered non-Malay Sabah and Sarawakians, a derogatory poem about cattle on Facebook angered ethnic Indians, and comments about vernacular schools have angered the Chinese community. His new racism is alarming. His theology is evolving in new directions, spilling into political commentary, rather than limiting himself to spiritual issues. Despite the controversies, Perlis chief minister Azlan Man is being pressured to pass a bill to appoint Dr. Maza Mufti for life, thus setting up a theocracy in Perlis.

Founding Schools

The movement’s main focus is its educational mission to instil strong Salafist-leaning values in the next generation. To this end, Dr. Maza has personally established a primary school which, along with a number of other Salafist-leaning schools. These establishments receive the bulk of their operational funds from the Perlis Islamic Affairs and Malay Culture Department (MAIPs). MAIPs also owns the Perlis Islamic University College (KUIPs), where the former CEO Dr. Mohd Mizan Mohd Aslam was sacked for not supporting a Salafist agenda within the institution. He was replaced with a strong ally of Dr. Maza, Dr. Mohd Radzi Othman.

The impact of this agenda is being felt at the Universiti Malaysia Perlis, where students are being indoctrinated into Salafist ideology. Former Vice Chancellor, Badlishah Ahmad, who is a close confidant of Dr. Maza, saw nothing wrong in a controversial ethnic relations exam question stating that fugitive preacher Zakir Naik is an Islamic icon, along with a racial slur against ethnic Indians in another question, sparking massive public outrage.

Use of Zakat

Using Zakat, the obligatory Islamic tax to serve the poor, as a source of finance has led to criticism about a lack of transparency. A MAIPs insider revealed that there are no audit trails inside the organizations that receive Zakat, there is favoritism towards Salafist-leaning organizations over Sunni ones, and there are no controls over whether these payments are being used for political purposes.

New Madhhab

Dr. Maza’s movement is widely considered to be a new madhhab (school of thought within Islam) with former education minister Maszlee Malik dubbing it ‘Asrism’, while others referring to it as Mazaism. Some claim the movement promotes Salafist-Asri ideals, rather than Islamic ideals, and believes that Malaysia needs a dictator like Saddam Hussein, and there should be focus on public, rather than private sins. For others, Dr. Maza is challenging traditional Malay elite values. When he was arrested by Selangor state Islamic authorities back in 2009 for preaching without a license, he actually received a groundswell of support.

Dr. Maza firmly believes Malaysia is not yet Dar-ul-Islam — an Islamic state which propagates an Islamic utopia. This is not directly political, nor is it intended to be necessarily organizational. The movement is about changing attitudes, which will lead to his Islamic utopia. However, not being directly politically involved doesn’t mean he isn’t seeking power and influence from within the bureaucracy through the Alumni.

Dr. Maza showed his ruthlessness in getting his people into religious positions through the abrupt sacking of 25 imams from mosques around Perlis. Some of those sacked claimed it was because they weren’t following Sunnah Perlis practices, which led to protests and the firebombing of Dr. Maza’s official car.

Malaysia’s Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood inspired the emergence of the Islamic Youth Movement, the Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) during the 1970s and 1980s. The PAS was also deeply influenced by the theology of the Brotherhood movement. PAS leader Abdul Hadi Awang was influenced by the theology as a student and can be considered one of the spiritual leaders of the movement within the region today. Many PAS leaders also studied in Cairo, Egypt, and have adopted many of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideas.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a global Sunni Islamist organization, founded in Egypt in 1928. Its objective is to develop state-based Islam, under the rule of Sharia law. This, unlike the Salafist movement, makes the Muslim Brotherhood a political organization.

The Muslim Brotherhood would view and address social issues from an Islamic perspective. Its primary focus is on social justice, the eradication of poverty, political freedom, and Islamic jurisprudence within an Islamic state. The Muslim Brotherhood is against personal ostentation, and promotes its view of social morality, such as segregation of the sexes in school environments.

Globally, the Muslim Brotherhood is going through its own divisions. ABIM has maintained its social justice focus, while PAS has intertwined the Muslim Brotherhood theology with a nationalistic version of political Islam.

PAS has developed the Ketuanan Melayu, or ultra-nationalist Malay supremacy doctrine, over the last couple of decades to take advantage of the growing Islamic revival in Malaysia. PAS has exploited the propagation of Ketuanan Melayu to foment further division in the multicultural nation. This is very important electorally within the Malay heartlands which select around one-third of the constituencies in the Malaysian parliament in their political fight with UMNO, the other Malay based party.

The major influence of the Muslim Brotherhood is through the states they govern in Malaysia, namely Kelantan and Terengganu. Within these states, PAS controls the narrative in the sermons at Friday prayers, mosque councils, and the state’s many madrasas (religious schools).

For a long time, PAS controlled the nation’s Islamic bureaucracy, JAKIM, which is now overseen by a PAS minister, Idris Ahmad. However, it is questionable how much authority he really has over the organization with the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, being placed in charge of JAKIM by the Council of Rulers.

A Divided Malaysian Ummah

The power struggle between Wahabi-Salafism and the Muslim Brotherhood is dividing the Malaysian Ummah (Islamic community). Kelantan and Terengganu are subject to the theology of the Muslim Brotherhood, while Perlis is very much becoming a Wahhabi state, where Imans who refuse to follow Wahhabi doctrines are being dismissed.

Clear demarcation lines are being drawn across Malaysia, according to theological belief. Rather than Malaysia growing closer together as one nation, the power struggle between the two theologies is creating major sectarian rifts.

Competition Abroad

Both groups are active outside of Malaysia. Najib Razak’s visit to see the leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza, during his tenure as prime minister indicated Wisma Putra’s inept control over the nation’s diplomacy. Rather than a state visit to Palestine, it became a political visit. Also, the congratulatory message by PAS information chief Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi to the Afghan Taliban on taking back Kabul on August 18 last year drew international flak. Additionally, former prime minister Mahathir’s antisemitic remarks during his visit to the US in 2019 made many think of Malaysia as a renegade state, out of step with much of the Arab world.

Dr. Maza also funds Saudi-educated cleric Lutfi Japakiya — the leading Salafist educator in Thailand. Luftfi’s efforts are changing the nature of Malay ethno-identity among the younger generation within the Deep South, where there has been an insurgency over the last twenty years. MAIPs donated THB 20 million ($61,180) from Zakat monies to fund the building of the Al-Quran and Sunnah reading center at Fatoni University. MAIPs has also donated substantial funds to provincial Islamist authorities within Southern Thailand for annual Salafist gatherings.

Repressed Traditions

This has all been at the cost of freedom to practice Islam, the way millions of Malays have for hundreds of years. Malays are being discouraged to practice ‘Nusantara Islam’, the traditional Islam practiced for hundreds of years on the Malay Peninsula. Additionally, some aspects of Malay culture and dress have been deemed socially taboo and formally banned. Also, Bahasa Malaysia, the national language has been Arabized, with many traditional Malay language words substituted with Arabic equivalents.

Malays are being taught that any non-Muslim practices pose a potential danger to their faith, as we are seeing with the debate surrounding the Bon Odori, traditional Japanese cultural festival, held each year in Malaysia by the local Japanese community. Muslims are treated as if they cannot be entrusted to manage their own personal faith. Islam in Malaysia has become more about adhering to state rules rather than an expression of one’s own personal faith and spirituality before Allah.

Through deliberate social engineering, the youth in Malaysia have become one of the most conservative groups within the Islamic world today. While political pundits have predicted the secular Undi 18 movement will pose a substantial challenge to the Islamist movements, it is very unlikely it will be effective in the coming election.

Conclusion

In 2020, the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars described the Muslim Brotherhood as a deviant movement which doesn’t respect true Islam. They labelled the Brotherhood as a terrorist movement, which led to condemnation from a host of Malaysian NGOs, which included The Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia ABIM, and the Islamic social and education NGO Pertubahan IKRAM Malaysia. A number of countries have designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

The former religious affairs minister under the Pakatan Harapan government, Mujahid Yusof Rawa, a member of the political party Amanah, claimed the Muslim Brotherhood is not a threat to Malaysia citing ABIM’s and IKRAM’s support of the movement.

Dr. Maza and his Salafist vision have put the police Special Branch in a quandary, with serious concerns over terrorism within the Perlis Salafist movement. There have reportedly been episodes of friction between the Royal Household and the police, where a Madrasah owned by the Royal household was closed down and seven Ustaz, or religious teachers, were arrested on suspicion of terrorism.

This poses a delicate challenge for the Special Branch to either abide by the constitution and turn a blind eye to what is happening, or to confront these extremist tendencies and protect the Royal Household, which is increasingly becoming an ally to Dr. Maza’s movement.

There is a quiet struggle going on between the two theologies for influence within the executive government, the civil service, academic and learning institutions, IKRAM, and mosques throughout the country. These groups have changed the way Malays think. According to Fadzil, this could split the Malay community deeply and continue to ignite inter-ethnic conflict within Malaysia. The Malaysian bureaucracy is infiltrated by people who are funded by foreign powers. Both sides within this struggle have contradicted the Selangor Sultan, over the Bon Odori festival, pitting the Islamists directly against Royalty in Malaysia in an unprecedented manner. This is a clear and present danger to Malaysian society.

Originally published in the European Eye on Radicalization (EER) on 26th August 2022

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