BANGI, May 9 — Non-Muslims must continue to pay taxes but should just leave the Malays and Muslims to run the country, Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) said today even as Putrajaya seeks to coax the minority groups to join the civil and security forces. Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman has repeatedly said the Chinese and Indian communities have no right to question national policies involving the Malay and Muslim majority, and was today asked if the minorities should pay less tax. “It is the remuneration they pay as citizens, so they have to pay… they earn their income from the country, therefore they have to pay taxes,” he told a news conference here. Abdullah also maintained that the country’s non-Muslim citizens, whom he has unapologetically labelled “immigrants”, have no right to object to the shaping of Malaysia as an Islamic country, as well as the position of the Bumiputera community, which includes the Malays. “This cannot be questioned by any immigrant race... they have to accept the special position of Malays and Bumiputera as the sovereign race in this country,” he said. He reiterated that non-Muslims, especially the Chinese should not go “overboard” in meddling over issues which concerned the Muslim community. Abdullah said on Wednesday the Chinese were considered intruders into Malay land, and had been brought by British colonialists to oppress the Malays. The hard-core Islamist group has been raising its public profile over the past one year with its provocative remarks against Malaysia’s racial and religious minorities. In February, Isma vice-president Muhammad Fauzi Asmuni was investigated for sedition after he allegedly called on Muslims nationwide to be aggressive when defending Islam. No charges have been made. The group had previously claimed that Indians and Chinese were brought into the country to weaken the Malay identity and undermine the community’s birthright to Tanah Melayu on the pretext of multiculturalism.
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 08:53:06 +0000
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