I am a Malay, a Muslim and a Malaysian. I wish to say that I stand in solidarity with YB Ngeh Koo Ham and his family over the recent fire attack to his cars and house.

This fire attack has shown that our country’s future is bleak in relation to trust between communities.

This fire attack is not only on Ngeh and his family but a symbolic attack on our idea of Malaysia and our sanctity of the Rukunegara.

For me, I do not see this attack as a simple act of hooliganism or perhaps from some gangsters, but a possible act of racial and religious extremism.

Everyone seems to agree that this attack has come merely days after his statement about the issue of syariah laws and the Federal Constitution.

In my writing four years ago, I made mention that Islam is a Malaysian issue, not just a Muslim one.

Therefore, any infringement on the civil liberties of others, especially to the Federal Constitution, makes Islam an issue for all Malaysians, not just for Muslims.

This should not be an indication of disrespect between people and faiths, but simply an administrative process involving the good for all Malaysians.

It does not take a genius to see that Malaysia is heading toward an unhealthy situation of religious tension.

Firstly, there are political leaders such as Hadi Awang and Sanusi making remarks of a derogatory nature as well as making enemies among people and faiths in their statements.

Secondly, there is no clear, or any, response from the religious affairs department to counter the many seditious interpretations of the Qur’anic verses by Hadi Awang.

Thirdly, the Muslim intelligentsia from public universities have offered no narrative of Islam as a civilization of peace, tolerance and mutual understanding.

I suspect that most of the professors are as conservative or even as extremist as the PAS president.

I hope the new leadership of the Higher Education Ministry would root out this baggage of conservative and extremist professors.

Fourthly, we see the immense popularity of PAS among the Malays. whether young or old, and that goads the leaders to be more abusive and incendiary.

I, for one, do not believe that the fire attack was perpetrated by members of the opposition party.

Why not? This is because, PAS is at its strongest in terms of parliamentary seats and inter-generational support. Why would they jeopardize their popular reputation by creating a political “martyr” in Ngeh out of the incident?

I believe that many young Muslims are impressionable and ignorant about Islam, and take on the narrative of Islam under threat from political parties and decide to take their own “holy” actions of “jihad against kafirs”.

That is why I have asked many times for muftis and professors to tamper the seditious interpretation of religion by Hadi Awang and the antics of Sanusi ridiculing other religions and cultures.

But my calls have been ignored by university leadership and religious leadership. So, now we are at an escalation of possible and probable acts of religious extremism.

Before this, the incident of the Perlis mufti’s official car being burned by Malay perpetrators comes to the fore.

Malays love their religion to death, but unfortunately show the least knowledge of its values and history.

Sentiments to follow the teachings of popular speakers like Azhar Idrus and Zakir Naik fire their sense of false piety which may have led to actions that can cause the loss of life.

I would like to call for a national discourse on using the name of a religion to be disallowed by the Registrar of Societies.

There are three important reasons and rationale for this suggestion.

Firstly, there might be a Parti Kristian SeMalaysia, Parti Hindu SeMalaysia and Parti Buddha SeMalaysia in the future. What then? We would be perpetuating a religious division among our communities that may lead to civil unrest.

Such political parties are toxic in the sense that they propagate a me-or-the-other narrative that isolates a community from the larger nation.

Secondly, the influence of a political party like Parti Islam SeMalaysia poses a difficult question of who the ultimate “authority” of Islam is. Is it the Islamic Religious Affairs office, or is it the political party PAS?

Historically, Islam was the purview of the Raj-Raja and the department of Islamic affairs. Now there are two choices and even a third “authority” which are influential speakers like Zakir Naik and Azhar Idrus. Thus, who speaks for real Islam?

Thirdly, the rationale for removing and disallowing the name of a religion to a political party brings about a discourse that would justify such acts of terrorism as the duty of Muslims in the defense of Islam.

Any attack on the Islamic political entity is seen as an attack on Islam.

I am not saying that religion like Islam cannot be a political force, or that religion must be separated from politics.

What I am saying is that it is permissible to have religion as your core identity, but please consider the idea of the larger nation and the larger aspect of global co-existence, and leave the name of the religion out of the party’s name.

Once upon a time, Tun Dr. Mahathir suggested that PAS be de-registered so that the use of the name “Islam” cannot be sullied by the narrow political agendas of the party.

I was then a strong supporter of PAS because PAS was never an extremist party to me, until recently.

Apparently, Mahathir was right in his suggestion, and I am now agreeing with him after all these years.

However, Mahathir was then trying to save his political party, while the issue now is about the very safety of the lives of citizens of this country.

I am therefore not calling for the de-registration of PAS or the elimination of its so-called “Islamic ideology”, but to call out the need for the name of any religion to be eliminated from the full name of any political party.

For the healthy future of our nation, let us save the nation before another May 13 happens, this time because of the “weaponization” or misunderstanding of religion.

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)