Proponents of civil rights and liberties champion their causes only for the sake of challenging religious values, Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) claimed today.
The group said Islam already recognises the rights of both men and women, and Islamists such as Isma has no qualms agreeing with liberals if their aim is restricted to these issues.
“Maybe we do not differ in issues which are really about rights,” Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman said during a press conference today.
“What differs is when [the liberals] promote things which do not count as rights. They are more towards challenging values, and not rights.”
Abdullah said these challenges are not merely against Islam, but also values and morals that are shared by all faiths.
He gave public nudity as an example of such challenges against social norms allegedly espoused by the liberals, which he claimed no sane person would accept.
“The liberals are advertising this lifestyle. Do they want to stay nude all the time? Why are they doing this? Because they want to challenge our original values,” he alleged.
He also gave the example of Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers publicly advertising their consumption of alcohol, claiming that drinking is not a social norm accepted by all religion.
“From there we can see the differences. Who are the ones really challenging, who are the real extremists?” Abdullah asked.
Abdullah made the remark after a closed-door multi-national seminar on tackling the alleged threat of liberalism in the Royale Chulan Hotel here.
Isma and feminists, especially Muslim women’s rights group Sisters in Islam, have long been at loggerheads, with the former urging a rejection of the concept that promotes equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women.
Dr Nur Farrah Nadia Najib, who heads the group’s family and society bureau, was publicly criticised last week for suggesting that Malaysia can still be a high-income nation if its men remain the main breadwinners while women focused on raising children.
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