“Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.”

- Toni Morrison, ‘The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations’

COMMENT | The announcement by Johor’s religious department regarding the setting up of a centre to rehabilitate those who have strayed from the teachings of Islam is a dangerous step in the process of normalising hate in this country.

LGBTQ+ folks are rightly worried that they are being used as scapegoats by the religious and political class. The fact that targeting LGBTQ+ folk supposedly goes against the Constitution and precedent but continues anyway, is demonstrative of the power of religious bureaucracy in Malaysia and its political enablers.

However, liberal Muslims should be worried too. As the state Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairperson Mohd Fared Mohd Khalid said: “The rehabilitation centre will not only tackle those who have veered from the right path, but it will also help those who...