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Islamic Activism Anti-Apostasy Propaganda in the Lina Joy Case Maya Khemlani David and David Yoong Soon Chye Islamic Activism: Anti-Apostasy Propaganda in the Lina Joy Case THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK Tata Institute of Volume 72, Issue 2 Social Sciences April 2011 Islamic Activism Anti-Apostasy Propaganda in the Lina Joy Case MAYA KHEMLANI DAVID AND DAVID YOONG SOON CHYE In early 2007, the court case of Lina Joy’s conversion from Islam to Christianity was under both the local and international media spotlight because the case brought into the forefront the question whether a Malaysian Malay has the constitutional right to choose her religion, as well as marry a non-Muslim (Koshy 2007). Conservative Malay Muslims claimed that Joy, being a person of Malay heritage, threatened the Malay identity because the Federal Constitution states that a Malay has to be a Muslim. This research analyses the techniques used by PEMBELA, an Islamic activist group comprising more than seventy Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), to push their cause and solicit support from Muslims to oppose Joy’s claims. Jowett and O’Donnell’s (2005) content analysis is used to study the leaflet distributed by PEMBELA. Maya Khemlani David is Professor, Section for Co-curricular Courses, External Faculty Electives and Titas (SKET), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and David Yoong Soon Chye is Professor, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia. THE LINA JOY APOSTASY CASE AND THE RISE OF PEMBELA On May 30, 2007, about 200 Islamic activists from PEMBELA, a coalition group comprising more than seventy Islamic NGOs—whose members are mostly professionals, students and Islamic clerics—gathered outside the Malaysian Federal Court to hear the verdict on Lina Joy’s appeal (Ahmad 2007; Liow 2009: 117). Born Azalina Jailani, Lina Joy had appealed to the High Court to grant her application to remove ‘Islam’ from her identity card as she had converted from Islam to Christianity at the age of 26. Such legal recognition would allow Joy to marry her Christian fiancé, as mar- riages between Muslim women and non-Muslim men are invalid under Malaysian law and under the Syariah/Islamic Jurisprudence. Joseph (2004: 172) explains that “in most cultures, ethnic and religious identities are bound up with reproduction, in the sense that they limit who one can IJSW, 72(2), 199–222, April 2011 200 Maya Khemlani David and David Yoong Soon Chye marry, whether endogamy or exogamy is the cultural norm”. In Malaysia where approximately 60.4 percent of Malaysians are Muslims, 19.2 per- cent Buddhists, 9.1 percent Christians, 6.3 percent Hindus (CIA World Factbook, 2009), Islamic apostasy is considered a serious crime under Syariah law. In Malaysia, the linkage between religion, ethnicity and poli- tics is complex. A Malay is constitutionally defined as a person who pro- fesses the religion of Islam and Islam is the official religion of the Federation. Hence, it is no surprise that a Malay who chooses to become an apostate challenges the religious-ethnic-politics paradigm. Joy’s legal predicament began in February 1997 when she applied to the National Registration Department (NRD) to change her name to Lina Joy and her religion from Islam to Christianity. However, her application was rejected in August 1997 on the grounds that the Syariah Court had not granted her permission to renounce Islam. In 1998, the NRD granted her request to change her name but not her religion. Having being baptised, Joy argued that under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, it was her right to choose her religion and appealed against the NRD’s decision in the High Court in 1999. In April 2001, the High Court ruled that Joy could not change her reli- gious identity, because ethnic Malays are defined as Muslims under the Constitution. Joy then took her case to the Court of Appeal. In September 2005, the court ruled in a 2–1 majority decision against Joy and said it was up to the Syariah Court to settle the issue of religion. Although the Consti- tution of Malaysia guarantees freedom of religion, secular courts have no jurisdiction to hear applications by Muslims to convert. However, Joy faced a problem—the Syariah courts rarely grant such requests, and in fact, the Syariah courts could sentence her to a rehabilitation centre for being an apostate[1], Joy appealed to the highest court of Malaysia, the Federal Court, and her appeal was heard on July 2006. Concerned with Joy’s appeal and other cases of apostasy in Malaysia, an Islamic group called the ‘Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement’, or PEMBELA (Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia), was formed on July 16, 2006. Its primary objective was to bring together a wide range of interest groups to defend the primacy of Islam and its status as the official religion of Malaysia from legal challenges made by apostate Muslims and non-Muslims (Liow 2009: 117). Drawing from Wodak, Ruth and Meyer’s (2002: 113) explanation of ideologies, PEMBELA’s leaflet highlights the basic principles that sum up the attitudes shared by members of IJSW, 72(2), 199–222, April 2011 Islamic Activism: Anti-Apostasy Propaganda in the Lina Joy Case 201 PEMBELA’s subsidiary groups (Islamic NGOs). These Islamic NGOs comprising PEMBELA share a schematic structure that represents the self-image of the group (Islam), aims (activism for Islam to be upheld as the law of the land), activities (prayers and activism), norms and resources. Responding to what it perceived as a ‘liberal tide sweeping the judiciary viewed as a threat to Islam’s position in the country’ (Lau, 2006), PEMBELA has undertaken numerous actions such as (Liow 2009: 118): • organising public seminars and forums on the need for Muslims to defend their faith; • mobilising its network of clerics to campaign against the use of civil courts by Muslims intent on denouncing Islam; • forming a group to defend Islam from legal attacks; and • carrying out a signature campaign against groups that attempt to elevate Article 11(1) of the Malaysian Constitution above Article 121 1(a).[2] Prior to the High Court’s verdict in the Lina Joy case, PEMBELA issued a document/leaflet entitled, ‘Kes Azlina Jailani (Lina Joy) lawan Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan, Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara dan Kerajaan Persekutuan: Usaha menjatuhkan martabat Islam dan menggugat identiti bangsa?’ (Lina Joy versus the Federal Territory Is- lamic Council, National Registration Department and the Federal Govern- ment case: An effort to diminish the dignity of Islam and threaten race identity?). The document aims to mobilise support of Muslims to express their concerns of what they perceive to be a threat to their faith, identity and status of Islam in Malaysia. This paper looks at the ways PEMBELA solic- its support with propaganda strategies in the document. THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES To study the ways PEMBELA solicits support, this paper looks at the Ingroup versus Outgroup Theory and the nature of ideology and propa- ganda discourse. Ingroup versus Outgroup Theory An ingroup is ‘a social group commanding a member’s esteem and loyalty’ whilst an outgroup is ‘a social group towards which one feels competition or opposition’ (Macionis 1989: 182; Tajfel, 1974). Numerous studies have shown that if members of the ingroup have positive views of themselves, they generally hold negative views of outgroup members. For instance, IJSW, 72(2), 199–222, April 2011 202 Maya Khemlani David and David Yoong Soon Chye politicians and political groups are known to use this ‘we-they’ dichotomy to garner support (Merskin, 2004). Inevitably, the construction of the ingroup and outgroup tends to create an idea that there is an ‘enemy’ (outgroup) whose unscrupulous values go against the principles upheld by the ‘good people’ (ingroup). Intriguingly, this construction of good and evil (as a byproduct of ingroup and outgroup identities) serves as an arche- typal narrative that has enabled societies to construct their moral blue- prints, establish social cohesion, and exercise social control for centuries (Conway, Grabe and Grieves, 2007: 201). Although Macionis (2001: 358) notes that these prejudgments tend to ‘exaggerate the virtues of people like ourselves, while our negative preju- dices condemn those who differ from us’, it should be remembered that ingroup and outgroup relations are double-edged swords as members of the outgroup can also be perceived positively. This in turn can reinforce reverence and respect of the ingroup towards the outgroup. For example, contemporary youths associate American Black culture (hip-hop and rap) with popularity and current trends. Ideology and Propaganda Discourse Voloshinov (1973: 10) notes that, ‘wherever a sign is present, ideology is present too’. As people tend to use language in such a way as to sig- nal, or create their cultural identity, language tends to be culturally and ideologically ‘loaded’ (also see Joseph, 2004: 167). According to van Dijk (1995), ideologies as basic systems of fundamental social cognitions and organisation of attitudes and other social representations shared by members of groups, indirectly control the mental representa- tions that form interpretations. In other words, specific schemas and perceptions of individuals are formed when they interact in the environ- ment where the schemas and perceptions are most commonly practised. People may learn to perceive structure in information on the basis of re- peated exposure, extracting or attuning to regularities in the material they come across (Dillion, 1991). Despite its pejorative term, language that is used to persuade people and influence the way they understand an issue for the purpose of mobilising support for a cause, is often known as propaganda. Jowett and O’Donnell (2005: 269) define propaganda as the “deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the IJSW, 72(2), 199–222, April 2011 Islamic Activism: Anti-Apostasy Propaganda in the Lina Joy Case 203 propagandist”.
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