Islam and Freedom of Religious Expression in Malaysia

In Malaysia, Islam is the religion of the Federation, and the Islamic law system runs parallel to the civil law system. This triggers a political debate in defining Malaysia as either an Islamic or a secular state which makes the non-Muslims uneasy. The purpose of this paper is to study about the practices of Islam and religious expression in Malaysia particularly during the era of Najib Razak’s premiership before the regime collapsed on 9 May 2018. It used qualitative method via discourse analysis by assessing the legal documents and political decisions on religious expression and private speech in Malaysia. This includes in-depth expert interview with expert in Malaysian law and government leaders. This paper found that Malaysia is also a multireligious society prone to inter-group conflict. As such, care is taken not to publish articles that cast a slur on any religions in the country. Although the purposes of restriction are for political stability and national security, the ruling government has indeed manipulated the religious expression for political domination and regime security. This paper will definitely give the overview on the situation of Malaysia involving Islam and the limit of religious expression and religious freedom as well.