COVID-19 has not only presented many unprecedented challenges to daily lives; it has changed the violent extremism landscape in Malaysia.
Malaysia
The pace of Islamisation in Malaysia has undoubtedly increase in the past decade. Spiritual Hijrah by the masses towards greater piety is of course commendable – until it is used by celebrities, entrepreneurs, and politicians for their personal gain.
Islamic populism is currently a go-to strategy for Malay-based political parties vying for support form the same pool of electorates. This has been detrimental to the rights and liberties of non-Muslims in Malaysia with the possibility of extremism.
Article is a preamble to Dina Zaman’s new book on Malay(sia), Malayness. Her book is scheduled for sale in Q3 of 2021.
Malaysian women are no longer harmless nor immune to violent extremism. It is thus imperative for gender perspectives to be included in the design and implementation of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) initiatives in Malaysia.
Despite their defeat, Daesh’s propaganda is still garnering support globally. Key to this is the linguistic appeal of their messages.
Malaysia is blessed with abundance of water. But it is at risk of not having enough for all its citizens if the community continues with its ignorant ways.
The recent Emergency declaration in Malaysia is touted as an extraordinary measure during extraordinary times, though many question if it was necessary to manage a pandemic that seemed to be under control just six months ago.
Since terrorist and violent extremist groups tend to flourish in marginalized areas, no sector in today’s world is at greater risk and remains severely understudied as the stateless women and children targeted for recruitment and radicalization by terrorist organizations.
An oxymoronic term, ‘fake news’ has become synonymous with aspects of info-demic. Malaysia is no less susceptible to the vulnerabilities of the info-demic. However, there are idiosyncrasies in Malaysia’s legislative and fact-checking approaches which makes solutions decisively local.