MalayMail-Apr 4
Government and political leaders must defuse unrest over the “Allah” socks controversy before extremism can take root in multiracial Malaysia, experts warned.
Preventing and countering violent extremism (PCVE) expert Altaf Deviyati said such action was also needed to prevent the simmering tensions from boiling over into ethnic and religious conflict within Malaysia. “From the PCVE perspective this is a classic case of how a local issue ignites and allows for violent acts to be so called permitted in the name of defending religion. “To contain it, this is when local (community) leaders (non-governmental organisations, school or religious leaders) are needed, to dampen the tension,” Altaf told Malay Mail when contacted. However, she noted that in this instance, incitement has originated from leaders linked to the government, which some may interpret as tacit approval for the violence. On Sunday, a KK Mart outlet in Kuching was targeted with Molotov cocktails, making it the third outlet of the convenience chain to be attacked since the start of the controversy. The incident in Sarawak has caused additional concern as the state is considered to be a bastion of multiculturalism in Malaysia. “By right local leaders who understand their local community and know when something is not right such as local ethnic tension increasing, can do an intervention. I strongly believe in building local resilience because this will continue to happen. Local engagement has to start but this is tough since as Malaysian we are not used to it, but nevertheless we can restrengthen local mechanism such as rukun tetangga (neighbourhood association) for example,” she said. Altaf said that since the attackers in the three incidents were likely local, there was a high probability that members of the community would be able to identify the perpetrators. Read more at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/04/04/putrajaya-must-calm-allah-socks-storm-before-tensions-erupt-extremism-experts-say/126957
