The following survey was funded by Konrad Adenauer (KA). KA also funded
the setting up of IFC. That sounds fishy. I believe the statistics on
Muslims opinion in Pen. Malaysia is the base line where KA will work out
its agenda to shape Muslims mind in Pen. Malaysia into accepting the
concept of Liberal Islam. After this, KA might create a KPI where they
will seek to alter the statistics in say 5 years time toward their
favour.
That could be the reason why at the end of the news Dr. Martinez
suggested more interfaith dialogue.
And this so called interfaith dialogue is shaped in such a way to
accommodate the agenda for Liberal Islam.
My opinion is be careful with the agenda of all these kafirun. I could
guess where they are heading to...
Wassalam.
The Sun 6/9/2006
Local News
Poll shows 73% think we are Islamic state
Jacqueline Ann Surin
PETALING JAYA: Nearly three quarters of Malay Muslims in Peninsular
Malaysia believe that Malaysia is an Islamic state, according to a
poll.
Seventy-three percent of 1,029 Muslims surveyed in the Muslim
Identities Public Opinion Survey, Peninsular Malaysia answered "Yes" to
the question "Is Malaysia an Islamic state?", while 25% answered "No" to
the question and 2% said they didn't know.
However, 77% said they did not want an Islamic state in Malaysia, like
Iran.
Of those polled, 57% wanted hudud laws implemented. However, 60% said
non-Muslims should not be subjected to hudud laws while 28% said they
should.
The public opinion survey conceptualised and coordinated by Assoc Prof
Dr Patricia Martinez of Universiti Malaya's Asia-Europe Institute,
polled 1,029 randomly-selected Malaysian Muslims across the peninsula
between Dec 15 and 18 last year (2005).
It was administered by the Merdeka Centre and supported by funding from
the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
It also found that a majority of Malay Muslims in the peninsula say it
is acceptable for Malaysian Muslims to live alongside people of other
religions.
The majority also believe that Malaysian Muslims should learn about
other religions in Malaysia, and that Muslims in Malaysia can
participate in interfaith dialogue.
Asked if Islam should be part of an Interfaith Council in Malaysia, if
there were one, the majority also said "Yes".
Martinez noted that the survey has mixed findings, some of which
dismantle the generalisations and assumptions that are made about
Malaysian Muslims.
Ninety-seven percent of those polled said it was acceptable for
Malaysian Muslims to live alongside those of other religions, while 76%
said that if there were an interfaith council in Malaysia, Islam should
be part of that council.
However, even though 77% said Malaysians should be allowed to choose
their religion as stipulated in the Constitution's Article 11 which
guarantees freedom of religion, 98% said Malaysian Muslims should not be
allowed to change their religion.
Of those polled, 64% want the syariah to remain as it is under the
Constitution.
At the same time, 77% said current syariah laws in Malaysia were not
strict enough, 18% said they were sufficiently strict, and 2% thought
they were too strict.
Forty-four percent also believed that the authority to monitor and
punish Muslims for immoral behaviour should be state religious
authorities, 33% chose family, and 21% chose others.
Martinez said the survey's objective was to get Muslims themselves,
instead of those who speak on their behalf, to define their identity,
issues and concerns, noting that this was the first such large-scale
poll that had been conducted in Malaysia.
"Some of the findings really repudiate some of the claims being made
about Muslims, or even what many of us have assumed. For example, the
growing orthodoxy, which came through in the survey, does not mean that
Peninsular Malaysian Muslims are growing less open to diversity in the
country.
"However, one needs to point out that some of those with the power to
shape Islam or who make pronouncements in the media or who claim to
speak on behalf of, or for Islam, seem to function from the opposite
dynamics: making Muslims more exclusive, less able to accept and
participate in cultural and religious pluralism," she told theSun.
The poll also asked Muslims which identity they would choose if they
could only choose one, and 73% chose Muslim, 14% chose Malaysian, and
13% chose Malay. However, 99% felt they were all three.
Martinez said that if over 70% of more than half of Malaysians identify
themselves primarily as Muslims, then national unity policies and
programmes, which largely focus on bridging the racial and ethnic gap,
do not sufficiently address the fundamental element of religiosity.
"Obviously, we need to build interfaith dialogue in all these policies
and programmes, and by that, I mean the ability to know about the
religion, and not just the cultural practice, of the other," she said,
noting however, that unlike cultural practice, in interfaith dialogue,
not everything is up for scrutiny or discussion.
"This is the sort of 'sensitivity' that should be addressed. Not
silence and silencing, but knowing boundaries. And here the golden rule,
'do unto others as you would others do to you' suffices.
If you don't want people discussing Jesus in disrespectful terms, then
don't talk about the Prophet Muhammad disrespectfully, for example."
Martinez said the government should consider building interfaith
dialogue along these lines into national unity programmes and projects
so that people could learn to disagree with civility and live with
disagreement or difference from fellow citizens.
Majority of Muslims think men and women have equal rights
PETALING JAYA: A majority of Malay Muslims in Peninsular Malaysia
believe that in Islam, women and men have equal rights.
According to the December 2005 Muslim Identities Public Opinion Survey,
Peninsular Malaysia by Assoc Prof Dr Patricia Martinez of University
Malaya's Asia-Europe Institute, up to 76% of the 1,029 polled said both
women and men have equal rights.
However, out of those who believed this, 80% were men and only 73%
women.
Of the 26% that responded "No" to the question, 26% were women and 19%
men.
The survey also found that 57% of those polled believed that if a
husband told his wife she should not work, she should obey him. Out of
this 57%, an equal number of men and women responded in the affirmative
to the question.
"We focus on men as being chauvinistic, but it looks like the women are
pretty conservative," Martinez said.
"Or another interpretation could be that Muslim women don't feel equal
treatment or equality and so less numbers of women responded 'yes' to
the question 'Are men and women equal in Islam'," she said, stressing
that there are always a number of ways to interpret statistics.
To another question, only 55% of all respondents agreed that women
could be syariah court judges, 38% disagreed, and 7% did not know or
gave no response.
Of those who agreed, 60% were women and 51% men. Of those who
disagreed, 35% were women and 40% men.
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