Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Who is afraid of an Islamic state? By Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN Royal Malaysian Navy
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
āToday I want to puke when I hear the word 'radical' applied so slothfully and stupidly to Islamist murderers; the most plainly reactionary people in the world.ā
- Christopher Hitchens, āHitch-22: A Memoirā
In my previous article, I argued that we should not be surprised that a segment of Malaysian youths are enamoured by the extreme religious dogma that threatens local and regional stability when mainstream Malaysian political culture is predicated on racial and religious supremacy.
With regard to the contention of Rizal Mansor (aide of the PMās wife Rosmah Mansor) that "uncouthā Malaysians are prone to demonise the government and belittle our security forces, I repost what I wrote about our security forces in an article about the Puchong terrorist attack:
āSecurity personnel tell me that efforts with monitoring mosques and other religious meeting places are hampered by the fact that on-the-ground assets have to filter so-called āanti-Umnoā rhetoric that is part of the democratic process and the real threats of anti-government rhetoric by committed Islamic terrorists.ā
The above is a convenient lead in to an article by Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, an associate professor of politics at the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) who published a good primer on the methods of radicalisation and the stateās response to it in the Middle East Institute - āISIS Recruitment of Malaysian Youth: Challenge and Responseā.
No doubt, the associate professor is part of the government initiative, or at the very least should be part of the consultative framework to counter the problem of the radicalisation of youths in this country.
I like this article for various reasons. In simple language, it outlines both the means of ISIS (now renamed IS) recruitment and the stateās response to it. It also focuses on an aspect of recruitment, the āusrahā method - (from the article) āsmall groups comprising fewer than 10 members who meet regularly to discuss and learn about Islam - that I find as an āinsurgencyā tactic, fascinating.
Azizuddin, in quoting chief assistant director of the counter-terrorism division of the Royal Malaysian Police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, wrote, āUsrah, as a method of entrenching the ādakwah personaā is effective in forming close-knit communities of dakwah activists with a mission to proselytise and Islamise society.ā
Azizuddin elegantly frames the process with āIf usrah is the sustenance, its camps can act as recruitment platforms for not only new dakwah candidates, but also new recruits for ISISā and uses an example of a former commando who first joined an āusrahā group which eventually led him to IS.
What I have always found fascinating is the kinds of literature used by these āusrahā groups to learn and discuss about Islam. While the state regularly bans books critical of Islam, it also has an unfortunate habit of banning books that offer different interpretations of Islam that deviate from the state-sanctioned dogma.
Banned Islamic text deviate by promoting āsecularā values or any values that the state, through its various Islamic bodies, classifies as transgressing against āIslamā.
I have no idea what text are used by these recruitment groups, but I do know that if there are no official state narratives beyond the lip service to religious diversity that Muslims can refer to challenge the orthodoxy of the various Islamic cults that are a danger to democracies around the world.
If Muslims cannot openly interpret their religion without fear of sanction from the state, this provides an opportunity for groups like IS to not only disseminate their literature within a controlled cult-like environment, but also offer a narrative that Muslims are not Islamic enough and beholden to corrupt regimes.
When there is no counter-balance, there is only extremism. When the narratives of these extreme Islamic groups deviate very little from the narratives of the state that Muslims are under siege and that the faith has to be protected or that Muslims should always support one another, then there is very little resistance to the idea that Muslims are a monolithic religious group beholden to religious betters to frame the discourse.
Furthermore, this stifling of speech hampers the efforts by the state security apparatus to discover truly deviant and dangerous teachings that advocate violence.
Add to this, the security apparatus has to contend with suspicion from a wide range of civil society groups, including Islamic groups, because instruments of the state like Pota (Prevention of Terrorism Act) and other security tools are viewed by many Malaysians as just another avenue to stifle political dissent.
The symptoms, not the disease
Azizuddinās article cites numerous examples where the āusrahā method has been used by officials in power to influence unsuspecting recruits and while the security apparatus has done a remarkable job in investigating and subduing such threats, it is plainly obvious, to me at least, that like many issues in Malaysia, the security apparatus is addressing the symptoms but not the disease.
The article also highlights the stateās online initiative but unintentionally highlights the problem with the state advocating certain narratives that speak more of the indoctrination process of courses like BTN (Biro Tatanegara) and other state-sponsored initiatives that promulgate the narratives that the Muslim community is under siege.
The article states that āIn an effort to combat ISIS recruitment of Malaysian youth and others, the police decided in October 2014 to shut down pro-ISIS websites. At the time, there were about 12 locally registered websites used by militant recruiters, which were known to have glorified several terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, and to have been responsible for convincing a number of Malaysians to join militant outfits.ā
Really? Only in 2014 did the state security apparatus decide that the best way to combat the ISIS (or IS) online was to shut down sites that glorified extremist violence? This is the problem right here. Because the state is too busy defining Islam and everyone with different ideas of Islam as ādeviantā, criminal organisations are free to spread their dogma and infect the attitudes of certain Muslims who are already infused with ideas of racial and religious supremacy.
In addition, make no mistake. These extremist groups are criminal organisations.
The article also highlighted another aspect of āfundingā which would be funny, if not for the fact that these extremists have carried out violent acts that have killed many Muslims in lands already blighted with corrupt āIslamicā regimes.
As the assistant director of the Police Counter-Terrorism Group elaborates - āWe know that before this, many militants wanting to fight in Syria would sell off their belongings or were sponsored to go over (there) by ISIS supporters in the countryā¦ Lately, however, the trend of taking personal loans from banks is on the rise.
They include young militants, especially those in the early 20s. Those with low credit ratings will apply for personal loans for as low as RM5,000 (US$1,400).ā
I have no idea if Malaysia can withstand the dark forces aligned against it. I do know that if the state continues with its policies of painting a āmoderateā face on extreme foundational religious and racial ideas and oppositional forces continue playing the same Umno game, when the dust eventually settles and we would be just another blighted Islamic state.