Malaysia Unraveling

I normally don't make it a habit of quoting anything from the Old Media, but I have to make an exception to that little rule of mine today. You know a situation has to be getting bad here in the Islamic Republic of Malaysia when even the MSM in the US picks up on it. All emphasis in the excerpt below is solely my own:

Malaysia's vigorously cultivated reputation as harmonious melting pot is under considerable stress. Chinese and Indian minorities comprise some 45 percent of the Malaysian population, yet they remain shut out from the Malay-dominated political mainstream. From their perspective, the leadership struggle is merely about which faction will control the contracts, jobs and other perks earmarked for ethnic Malays (Muslims)...

(Current Malaysian Prime Minister) Abdullah entered office by declaring himself "the prime minister for all Malaysians." But he's presided over a period of resurgent Malay nationalism, shot through with Islamic overtones. At a recent national meeting of Muslim preachers, participants roundly condemned pluralism and called for a government review of a policy that encourages citizens to attend the festivals of other religious and ethnic groups. "There's the misperception that this is the land of moderate Islam," says Aloysius Mowe, a Kuala Lumpur-based Islamic scholar. In May, Muslim mobs broke up a forum being held on Penang Island to discuss religious pluralism and constitutional protection for minority religious rights. Forum organizers said the message was clear: attempts to equate other religions with Islam in Malaysia will be met with violence. Malay politicians routinely make veiled references to a possible reprise of rioting if minority parties are perceived to be gaining too much strength.

Read the rest here. It's worth a look.