At the UN General Assembly 2015, Prime Minister Najib Razak pledged that Malaysia will bring in 3,000 Syrian refugees into the country. That, at the expense of the plight of the Rohingya refugees, while he and Umno are still mired in the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia is currently in an economic quagmire.
Such is one of the symptom of the mainstream Muslim community in Malaysia. The other symptom is the reports of hundreds of Malaysian Muslims who ran to Syria to join IS and fight a jihad there. They have favoured Syria over their own country, for what?
Mainstream Muslims are in thrall of Syria. Mention “Syria” and it becomes a trigger word for Muslims to their wanting to help free Syria from the Assad regime. This desire to help Syria has gone to such extremes that it becomes an obsession. Such Malaysians are willing to take a bullet for Syria rather than fellow Malaysians suffering under the weight of corruption.
A lot of readers have pointed out that Syrians are favoured more than other any victim because of their fairer skins. But ask any typical Malaysian Muslim and they will answer back two things: Syrians suffer because Bashir Assad is a sort of a Shiite Hitler oppressing the ‘true’ Muslims; and that the greater Apocalypse is about to happen in Syria and every Muslim must obliged to fight there to usher in the incoming End.
First answer is behind the recent discrimination of the local Shiite community. Since Bashir Assad is Shiite, every Shiite Muslim is suspected as an agent of Assad bent on sowing discord between Muslims. Shiites are deemed by mainstream Ahli Sunnah Waljannah Muslims as wanting to slaughter the ‘true’ Muslims and must be stopped preemptively first before they ‘kill’ them.
Thus there have been raids of Shiite mosques, gatherings, etc. These raids and discrimination have costs careers of Muslims who are Shiites or sympathetic with them, as well as nearly severing ties between Iran and Malaysia, when ministers and imams urge boycotts of Iranian products for aiding Assad.
The second answer is far more dangerous. According to local supporters, Syria is where the Apocalypse will happen; where the Antichrist will rise and fight the jihadists; and Jesus will arrive to their aid. Or something like that.
It is this shallow belief that’s more dangerous and needs to be addressed. Go to any Malay-language bookstores and you’ll see books predicting the Apocalypse, how the ‘evil’ Shiites are oppressing the ‘true’ Muslims and so on. Go to every Facebook pages or blogs set up by jihadists supporters and you'll see sentences in Malay such as ‘Fitnah akhir zaman’ or ‘Kiamat sudah dekat’ as well as quotes from obscure Hadiths justifying the civil war in Syria.
The saddest part is that mainstream Muslims and their religious leaders are proudly encouraging this dangerous train or thought, while criticism by dissident Muslims, disagreeing with the violence acted upon by the jihadists, are suppressed or punished.
Just like a Jerusalem Syndrome where delusions of religious fervour are triggered by visits to Jerusalem, Malaysian Muslims here are plagued with Syrian Syndrome, where Syria seems to trigger the same fervour and the desire to fight an apocalyptic battle with everyone deemed a sinner who stepped their filthy feet on that nation. With such a dangerous fever, there’s a possibility that violence may break out here at any minute, with hopes to win favor with IS.
Conspiracy theories
Along with these answers are conspiracy theories cooked up by these obsessed Muslims where they think Assad and his allies, Iran and Russia, are in cahoots with Israel and the US and that enmity between them is just ‘wayang’.
Never mind for the fact that Israel and her warhawk allies in the US Congress hate Iran’s guts, are doing their darndest to sabotage the nuclear treaty between US and Iran and want the US military to turn Iran into a new parking lot. Meanwhile, Iran is trying to pitch in to help fight IS but to the frequent refusal by the US government. But Muslims here, with their lack of the English language and knowledge of current events, never believe such things.
Well, I have my own conspiracy theory: Is the RM2.6 billion donated to Najib Abdul Razak in exchange for the Syrian refugees? Is the donor one of the richest anti-Assad Syrians trying to manipulate Malaysian politics for his own end? Could this obsession with Syria be the cause of all the corruption and scandals that plagued our country? Is this obsession the reason why Umno or PAS are being discriminatory towards other races?
Malaysia’s relationship with Syria is less like wanting to give help to the battered nation and more like an obsessive stalker who gives gifts and kills off her suitors and enemies even when she didn’t ask for it. Syrian expats who lived in Malaysia for years have pleaded with Muslims to not join the war in Syria, but those pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Along with corruption and greed, Malaysia needs to cured of this Syrian Syndrome. I’m not saying that Malaysia should cut off aid to Syria; she can aid Syria with more medical help, food, shelter and that’s it. Mainstream Muslims here should not however drag Malaysia into a foreign war that’s not their own. This is Syria's war, not ours. Malaysia needs to focus on the plight of her rakyat, starting with a peaceful jihad against corruption and poverty.
