By Marina Mahathir, The Star, Malaysia- If at home we don’t have any tolerance for people who disagree with us, how do we explain how IS treats differences in beliefs and views so violently?
A BRIGHT spark in our Cabinet recently said that women joined the Islamic State (IS) because they were lonely. Actually women join all sorts of things if they are lonely – gyms, clubs, mosques and churches, amongst others, that are usually within their own vicinity. It doesn’t explain, however, why there are a lot more men joining IS than women. Could they be even lonelier?
The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has declared that they will now go on an all-out war against IS’ influence. Of course this is a good thing and should be supported. But for any outside observer, it is too easy to see how Jakim’s good intentions will fail. The gap between such intentions and reality is simply too large.
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