Last February, the Sultan of Selangor had decreed that pig farming should not be permitted anywhere in the state. Part of the reason given for the decree is to "avoid public unease and ensure peace and harmony in Selangor is preserved."
The recently concluded "Rain Rave Water Music Festival" in KL also elicited heavy backlash from religious authorities and conservative critics. The Chinese Muslim convert and influencer Ridhuan Tee Abdullah would even label the event as a "pesta maksiat" and suggested that Bukit Bintang should be renamed “Bukit Binatang" for holding the festival.
Recently, an ex-managing director of Malaysia Airlines also felt compelled to defend why MAS continues to serve alcohol on its flights.
Parti Islam Se-Malaysia has consistently called for a total ban on alcohol by the national carrier, citing Islamic principles and the comfort of Muslim flight attendants.
MAS has already made several concessions to the demands of religious conservatives, including allowing Muslim crew members to wear the hijab while at work.
But at the rate that the national airline has been put on the defensive by the demands of religious conservatives, I wouldn't be surprised if MAS gives out further concessions in the future, which might even culminate to alcohol no longer be served to passengers someday.
Anyway, when we read about these developments, I am sure that many of us might be wondering why the Muslims in our country are becoming increasingly intent on projecting their religious sensitivities onto public life.
If I were to put myself in the shoes of a Muslim, I actually see much simpler ways that I can apply to resolve such issues as having alcohol served on flights or a rave party held in KL.
I could have, as the tourism minister Tiong King Sing argued, simply chosen not to attend the rave festival if I didn't like it, instead of demanding that the entire festival be cancelled. I could have also simply chosen not to have alcohol served to me on a flight if I didn't want it as well, instead of requiring the entire airline to be free from alcohol.
As a matter of fact, 20 or 30 years ago, I will even go on a limb and say that this was the way Muslims in our country chose to resolve whatever issues that they found to be in conflict with their religious practices.
It is only in recent times that, instead of controlling themselves in order to fulfil their religious obligations, Muslims are increasingly trying to control their environment or surroundings.
What precipitated this change?
In my view, I think that the reason is psychological.
Human psychology, in my view, is spread across a spectrum with three distinct divisions.
In the middle, you have the moderate section, while on its left and right-hand sides, it is flanked by the fanatical sections.
When your mindset is mostly in the moderate section, you will be geared more towards finding success and happiness than towards being yourself.
In other words, a moderate is someone with a fluid sense of self. If you are a moderate Muslim, for example, you will not predetermine that "this is how a Muslim should or should not be" and follow it rigidly or fanatically. Instead, you will simply believe that you can achieve success and happiness by following the Muslim way, while remaining willing to change your concept of how a Muslim should or should not be in a way that is conducive to your pursuit of success and happiness.
A fanatic, however, is someone with a very rigid and fixed sense of self. If you are a Muslim fanatic, for example, you will predetermine that "this is how a Muslim should or should not be" and follow it rigidly and fanatically, even if it brings you unhappiness and failure. To a fanatic, being happy or successful is not important. What matters is that they are able to be themselves, even if being themselves brings them unhappiness and decline.
Of fanatics, there are two types.
On the right-hand side, you have the ultra-conservatives or fundamentalists, whose chief aim in life is to revert back into becoming who they were in the past. If you are a Muslim ultra-conservative or fundamentalist, for example, you will probably dress like, eat like, think like and behave like how you presume Muslims behaved in the early days of Islam.
On the left-hand side, on the other hand, you have the ultra-liberal revolutionaries and radicals, whose chief aim in life is to become what they have not yet become. If you are a Muslim ultra-liberal, for example, you will probably try to be as different from your Muslim peers as possible. You will not act like them, think like them, behave like them, dress like them or even eat like them. Instead, you might deliberately do everything in opposition to what your fellow Muslim contemporaries are doing. You will do this because you wish to change the Muslims into something that they have yet to become, and to do that, you will aim to demolish what they currently are.
Now as a rule, we all — whether as individuals or collectives — are capable of being moderates, fundamentalists or radicals.
Even if you reflect upon yourself, you will find that there are times and occasions when you are moderate, just as there are times when you operate as a radical or fundamentalist.
As a rule, when you do not find your sense of self to be under threat, and you are confident that you are enough to achieve success and happiness, be it in this life or the next, you will operate mostly in the moderate section of your psychological spectrum.
But if you find that your sense of self is under threat, then you will revert to a fundamentalist mindset, and when you lose confidence in yourself, you will apply a more radical or revolutionary mindset.
Judging from the way Muslims in our country are behaving, I believe that they are collectively shifting towards the right side of their psychological spectrum, and the reason they are doing so is because they probably believe that their identity is under threat.
Now because our country is composed of Muslims and non-Muslims, there is an inclination — both among Muslims and non-Muslims — to assume that a threat to their identity must always come from the other half of the country, but this might not necessarily always be true.
Yes, to an extent, a threat to a Muslim identity comes from a non-Muslim source and vice versa, but there are other reasons as to why Muslim and non-Muslim identities can feel threatened.
Global events are one example of why Muslims in our country might feel that their identity is being threatened. The origin of Islamic civilisation — the Middle East — is currently suffering from an existential crisis due to the Iran war and the Gaza war. The Muslim world is being pressured by Western civilisation, and for now at least, it appears that Muslims are on the losing side. This being the case, it is inevitable that Muslims in our country too will feel that their identity is under threat, in tune with the threat that the Muslim world is facing globally.
Secondly, the march of time and technological advancement might also be a reason why not only Muslims, but all older identities, might be feeling an existential threat. Time destroys everything — and when time seems to be marching rapidly, fuelled by intense and relentless technological progress, those of us already struggling to keep up with the times might feel that our entire existence is being upended by change. Such rapid technological advancement, including social media and AI, is causing the new generation to become more estranged from the previous generation. Faced with the loss of their ability to connect with and pass down their identity to the next generation, Muslims — as well as other older identities not only in our country but throughout the world — might feel that their identity is at risk of becoming extinct.
That being the case, it is only natural that their mindset shifts to the right, causing them to become more aggressive in reshaping their surroundings in a way that allows their identity to survive, rather than adapting themselves to their surroundings, as they might have done if they did not believe that their identity was under threat.
One of the challenges of being a multiracial country like ours is that the races in our country tend not to experience reality in the same way, even though we possess a common nationality.
This discrepancy often causes one race to be unable to relate to the experience of another, which then threatens to break the nation apart.
We must remember that a group — be it a family, race, clan or nation — must more or less share the same experience in order to retain its group identity.
If you alone are suffering while everybody else in your group appears to be okay or having a good time, you are bound to become estranged from your group.
If half of the nation is suffering from an existential crisis while the other half is not only unaware of it, but is blaming the half that is suffering for making things difficult for everyone in the country, the country will break.
Sometimes, the solution to a problem does not lie in an outward action or decision, but in an enlargement of one's awareness.
Just take your family for example — if you find that your spouse and you are often in conflict, and you are wondering what you can do in order to re-establish your relationship with them, the answer might not come from you doing anything. The answer might actually come from enlarging your awareness to the point that you are able to understand their experience better.
It is only after you understand their experience that you will be able to reconcile your experience with theirs, and it is only if you more or less share a similar experience with your spouse that your marriage will endure.
As it is in a marriage, so it is in a country.
For so long as we believe that the tension in our racial and religious relationship can be resolved through action - by winning an election or winning an argument or passing a bill in parliament, for example - I foresee our racial and religious relationship to continue to deteriorate, to the point that it might divide or even break up the country.
To me, the solution is clear - to end our racial and resolve tension, we have to heighten and enlarge our awareness, to the point that we can meaningfully put ourselves in the shoes of each other and gain a meaningful understanding of how all of us are experiencing our reality.
Once we have such a meaningful understanding, then we can reconcile our experiences into one, and it is only if we are able to unify our experience, what we will be able to endure as one people in one nation, even if we came from different backgrounds.
As of now, I won't say that I am optimistic of our future, but as they say: "Life is a box of chocolate, you will never know what you are going to get."
No matter what I think today, tomorrow is another day, and anything can happen tomorrow.
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