The Sun and Malaysiakini have the news (and of course, LKS his opinion): Najib declares that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

The amazing thing is that this was a reply to a question asking if Malaysia was moving from a secular government to an Islamic state! I have to grudgingly admit that the man has guts; instead of giving the politically correct answer, he just gave it straight to us (that said, he might very well pull the “misquoted/misunderstood” card tomorrow so don’t hold me to this):

“Islam is the official religion and Malaysia is an Islamic state, an Islamic state that respects the rights of the non-Muslims and we protect them,” he said when asked to comment on concerns that Malaysia was moving from a secular government to an Islamic State and whether is Malaysia is one.

“I want to correct you (reporter), that we have never never been a secular state. Secular by Western definition means separation of the Islamic principles in the way we govern the country.

On one hand, this attitude does explain why MPs slaughter cows in Parliament, why deconverting from Islam is treason, and why this year the hottest story around the globe about Malaysia is Lina Joy. You have to pity the people over at the Sun who wrote that piece on “upholding our secular Constitution” some time back.

“”But as an Islamic state, it does not mean that we don’t respect the non-Muslims. The Muslims and the non-Muslims have their own rights”, quotes Malaysiakini. The question here is what on earth we infidels are supposed to make of all this, or did he think that we wouldn’t hear of it?

On the other hand, it could be that he just doesn’t know what “secular” means, or he could be just looking for brownie points - with all that’s been happening lately, no secularist is going to vote for BN anyway; might as well try to look (and sound) holy.

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