Fight back against threats with aggression, Muslims told

(MM) - Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) today urged Muslims nationwide to be aggressive in defending Islam, which it claimed is under attack from certain bands of non-Muslims.

In a video posted on its YouTube page, the group urged Muslims to emulate the prophet Muhammad in all his aspects, including waging war, instead of just offering the prophet’s message of peace.

“When faced with an issue, Islam will use the appropriate wasilah (vehicle) to tackle the problem,” said Isma vice-president Muhammad Fauzi Asmuni in the 16-minute video titled “Islam diancam, kita perlu agresif” (Islam is under threat, we must be aggressive).

“If people try to bring down Islam using poetry, Islam will fight back with poetry. But if people try to bring down Islam using swords, Islam will not fight back with poetry anymore. Islam will use swords as well.”

Fauzi said unnamed anti-Muslim groups were baiting the country’s Muslim majority and causing the current racial and religious tensions in the country.

He also slammed Muslims who tried to deal with anti-Muslim groups through diplomacy and dialogue, saying the former had misinterpreted Islam by only reading stories about the Prophet Muhammad’s kindness.

“Let us try to combine all the sirah (biographies). The prophet forgave and pardoned people, but at the same time he ordered the Battles of Badr, Uhud and Khandaq,” he said, listing down three key battles led by Muhammad.

“The prophet undertook aggressive action. After the Khandaq war, he was no longer attacked, instead it was him who attacked others.”

According to Fauzi, when faced with a massive enemy, like the Coalition of Human Rights NGOs (Comango), it is not enough to rely on just Friday sermons and articles printed in Malay dailies Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian.

Comango is made up of 54 local NGOs and had worked with Putrajaya on human rights issues for over 5 years before being declared “illegal” by the Home Ministry last month.

“If we see the reality in Malaysia, even if Muslims tolerate with utmost tolerance, there will still be people who want to harm Islam,” Fauzi added.

Isma warned last month that Muslims in Malaysia are facing real conspiracies coming from Christians and “chauvinists”.

“Muslims are facing threats from evangelist Christians and chauvinists who are becoming more aggressive and rude by insulting the faith, practices and tradition of Muslims,” Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman said in a statement.

“Nobody can deny that the agenda of liberalism, religious pluralism, total equality and Christianisation were brought to this country through various approaches, through proxies and certain networks linked to international Jews, Freemasons and evangelist Christians.”

Isma has also been at the forefront of attempts to discredit Comango, which has also come under fire from other Muslim activists who claim the group’s human rights recommendations to the United Nations ran counter to the “true” teachings of Islam and the Federal Constitution.