Malay Muslims fleeing country as fundamentalism takes hold
By Amy Chew It was 3am when a 30-year-old female Malay financial researcher was woken up by her flatmate in a middle class suburb in Kuala Lumpur early this year. Six to seven men from the Selangor State Islamic Department (Jais) had entered her apartment in a "morality" raid. An anonymous phone call to the religious department alleging a man was seen entering her flat was all it took for the religious officials to descend on her home. "The men were not accompanied by any woman. They searched all our bedrooms, closets and even looked under the bed as they thought a man could be hiding there," said the researcher who spoke on condition of anonymity. The incident left her angry and helpless and helped compel her to make plans to leave Malaysia in two years. The researcher is one of an increasing number of Malay Muslims aspiring to leave this country of 30 million. In the past, it was the country's ethnic Chinese and Indians who left Malaysia in large numbers fo...