the problem arises as no Muslim will dare apply for apostasy declar-
ation if the provision in some states imposes punishments of up to
RM 3000 fine or imprisonment of up to three years and mandatory
detention in the rehabilitation centre for up to 36 months, like the ones
provided in Perak, Terengganu and Kelantan respectively.^65
The strain on national harmony was underlined by the Annual Report 2010 of the
Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. The report stated that the commission
had received a memorandum from several parliamentarians regarding sixteen
attacks on places of worship. These attacks ‘had stemmed from the use of “Allah”
by non-Muslims’.^66 In addition to condemning these attacks, the commission
recommended that the police should thoroughly investigate them and ensure the
safety of the public in practising their religious rights and that religious leaders
should hold an inter-faith dialogue and ‘refrain from making statements which
could be detrimental to understanding and harmony’.
67
The politics of religion
The constitutional and legal imbroglios arising from the ‘Islamisation’ phenom-
enon were of concern to a coalition government which suffered a severe setback at
the 2008 election and which is seeking to recover electoral support at the 5 May
2013 general election. There was much adverse publicity arising from the ‘Kartika’
controversy
68
and the ‘cow’s head’ controversy.
69
As ‘the UMNO leadership is
desperate to shore up Malay support for the party’ it is beset by difficulties in trying
to resolve some of these inbroglios.^70 Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun
Razak made a journey to Rome on 18 July 2011 to meet with Pope Benedict XVI
to establish diplomatic ties with the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The
report in theMalaysian Insiderstated that the purpose of the prime minister’s
personal visit was to ‘help repair frayed ties arising from the Catholic Church’s
legal suit to use “Allah” to refer to the Christian God in its Bahasa Malaysia
(^65) Mohamed Azam Mohamed Adil, ‘Restrictions in freedom of religion in Malaysia’, at 24.
(^66) Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM), Annual Report ( 2010 ), 42.
(^67) Ibid., 42 – 3.
(^68) In 2008 , Kartika Dewi Shukarno, a former model, was caught drinking beer and was
sentenced to a fine and whipping by a Syariah Court in Kuantan, Pahang. She indicated
her willingness to be whipped publicly. The sentence was subsequently commuted by the
sultan of Pahang.
(^69) The 2009 controversy arose from a demonstration by some fifty Muslim Malays against the
relocation of a Hindu temple in their neighbourhood. The demonstrators were reported to
have ‘carried a severed and bloody cow’s head and threatened the Hindu community with
violence’: Anthony Milner, ‘Contesting human rights in Malaysia’, in Thomas W.D. Davis
and Brian Galligan (eds.),Human Rights in Asia(Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2011 ), p. 95.
(^70) Seeibid., at p. 96.