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Islamization in Malaysia: the constitutional and legal dimensions
thesis
posted on 2017-02-06, 02:15authored byChoo, Kah Sing
This thesis examines the legitimacy of the Islamization of the politics,
society and law in Malaysia. The Islamization plan was carried out by the
federal government in the early 1980s under the Mahathir administration.
The legitimacy of the Islamization plan is measured against the original
intent of the Independence Constitution, with particular reference to the
position of Islam in the Constitution. Those constitutional provisions
which have been claimed to have granted Islam as the main and dominant
religion in the Federation are examined. The thesis also examines the
responses of the civil judiciary. The civil court judges did not resist the
federal government’s Islamization plan. Instead, they have supported the
Islamization plan through judicial interpretation of the constitutional
provisions - they changed the original meaning of ‘Islam is the religion of
the Federation’ in Article 3(1). The Islamization phenomenon has
seriously undermined the supreme and secular nature of the Federal
Constitution. The impact of the Islamization process, with particular
reference to the exercise of religious freedom is examined. The thesis
argues that the federal government’s Islamization plan was deployed for
political reasons, and that the entire Islamization plan which was carried
out by the Mahathir’s administration is contrary to the original intent of
the Federal Constitution. Consequently, the legitimacy of the federal
government’s Islamization plan is highly questionable.