A friend bought me a book entitled “Malaysia and the club of doom – the collapse of the Islamic countries”. The writing is quite controversial and thought-provoking and I am surprised it is not banned in Malaysia.
I thought it may be relevant to share with friends in Thai-blogs as some of you may have heard and read about the 4 restive provinces in southern Thailand. The 4 provinces are predominantly Muslim areas that shared a common root and religion with Malaysia. What happen in Malaysia will in many ways affect the 4 Thai provinces.
Written by Syed Akbar Ali, a self proclaimed fundamental Muslim and banker turned businessman. The book contains 12 chapters. I am no literary critique and analyst; I can only share with you some of the interesting lines taken from the book.
Chapter 1 – The failed states. In this chapter, the author states the Characteristics of Failed Countries as:
1. Restrictions on free flow of information
2. The subjugation of women
3. inability to accept responsibility for individual or collective failure
4. The extended family or clan as the basic unit of social organization
5. Domination of a restrictive religion
6. A low valuation of education
7. Low prestige assign to work
“But among all the Islamic countries, religion seems to have a larger and life role in ultimately causing state failure.” The authors quoted an article written by Farrukh Saleem entitled “What went wrong? Capital Suggestion”. “Oil rich Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar collectively produce goods and services (mostly Oil) worth $430 Billion; Netherlands alone has a higher annual GDP while Buddhist Thailand produces goods and services worth 429 billion. Muslim are 22% of world population and produce <5% of global GDP”. “Over the past 105 years, 1.4 billion Muslim have produced 8 Nobel Laureates while a mere 14 million Jews have produced 167 Nobel Laureates”. “What went wrong? (1) Muslims have abandoned the divine heritage of Islam, and (2) Muslims have refused to change with time”.
In Chapter 2: Pakistan – a failed “Islamic” State? The author contrasts the secular India and Islamic Pakistan and concluded that India has fighting chance of crawling out of its hole.
Chapter 3: Can Malaysia become a failed state?” The authors wrote about “(1) There is a general “tidak apa” or “don’t really care” attitude about hygiene, cleanliness and taking care of children” (2) the subtle breakdown of law and order for Muslim – While non-Muslims in Malaysia are bless by God with a set of Just and fair law, the Muslims have to contend with religious enactment….religion apartheid against Muslim women…”, (3) In Malaysia religion is getting more intrusive into peoples’ daily live… moral squad.. , and (4) Aversion to hard work.
Chapter 4: Muslim violence is so predictable
Chapter 5: Denial – The fuel of falsehood
The author talked about his chanced meeting with a group of Tabligh cult from Southern Thailand in a LRT train in Kuala Lumpur. “They were obviously very poor people but they have been on religious journey – away from home – for 4 months. They were rubber tapers and farmers…. When I asked “how does your wife earn money while you are away for 4 months? He replied “God will provide..” This is the frightening answer you can get from these folks. They are high on some strange religious “spirit” that simply numb them from the real world”
“Chapter 6: Throwing up new hatred against non-Muslim” talked about the Muslim migrants in the West who were taught to hate the people who have fed them and clothed them by the religious leaders. “These types of behavior which many Muslim take for granted and do as part of their everyday life cannot be found in the Quran”. “The west has not westernized but modernized. The trick is for the Islamic countries to modernize and to do it as fast as they can.
Chapter 7: The hatred of dogs and house lizard
Chapter 8: Failure written in stone
Chapter 9: Some advice to the leaders and politician
Chapter 10: The Ummah (Muslim community) is lawless
Chapter 11: Falsely accusing the Quran: a clash of fools
Chapter 12: Doom, doom and more doom
You can get a copy of this book for US$13.58 at http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/getTitle.cfm?SBNum=39962
You can also find an entry in the Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_And_The_Club_Of_Doom
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