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Islam and Its Racial Dynamics in Malaysia’s 14th General Election 153

PAS days, Islam, operationalized and implemented via a maqasidic approach,
emphasizes mercy for all humankind. Adopting the slogan, Progresif dan Peduli
(Progressive and Caring), Amanah Islamists vowed to discard the divisive
doctrines of ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) and Muslim nationalism
in favour of Muslim democracy, following the examples of highly acclaimed
Tunisian activist Rashid Ghannouchi (b. 1941) and Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan (b. 1954) (Dzulke y 2016; Maszlee 2017a; Mujahid 2018).
Such an approach, while not rejecting sharia as a plank of an Islamic state
per se, did not prioritize its immediate implementation, on account of yet-
unrealized higher objectives.
PAS and vocal fellow Islamists like Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA,
Muslim Solidarity Front) have suspected that Amanah’s coalition, PH, is
harbouring secularist, liberal Muslim and Christian evangelical elements
within their midst (Wartawan Menara 2017). is supposition was despite
many Amanah and ISMA activists’ sharing the same IRC roots during their
formative Islamist days (Ahmad Fauzi and Che Hamdan 2016). ISMA
deputy president and chief of the secretariat of umbrella group Gerakan
Pembela Ummah (Ummah, Ummah Defenders’ Movement), Aminuddin
Yahya, deemed PH to be an unholy pact cobbled together just for the sake
of toppling Najib Razak, which would sacri ce Islamic interests and thereby
bene t Muslim advocates of allegedly deviant liberal and pluralist doctrines
and non-Muslim haters of Islam (Athirah Huda 2018).
ISMA and Ummah, as new organisations intent on in uencing voters,
masterminded the Gerakan Pengundi Sedar (GPS, Conscious Voter
Movement) campaign to back Malay-Muslim candidates, mostly from PAS,
who would provide a bulwark against rising anti-Islamic forces. However, as
PAS’s dismal performance on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia showed,
urban and semi-urban Malay-Muslim voters paid GPS less heed than did rural
and east-coast counterparts (Zurairi 2018a; Hew, this volume). Upon PH’s
GE14 triumph, ISMA President Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman grumbled that
the much-hyped New Malaysia was now helmed by liberal and secular leaders
(Malaysiakini 2018b).

IKSIM and the Christian Bogeyman of GE14
Although they make up only about ten per cent of Malaysia’s population, many
Malaysian Christians are well-educated, middle-class urbanites and normally
politically conscious. However, they have never mobilized in a speci c political
party. With the opening up of public space since BN su ered an electoral

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