Is Malaysia An Islamic or Secular Country??

I would like to pluck an extract of RPK's post Is Malaysia An Islamic Country Or Not? as follows, for discussions here (in my post):

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The crescent in the Malaysian flag is a symbol of Islam


Yesterday, former Umno MP Tawfik Ismail said Malaysia is not an Islamic country and hence Islam or religion should not interfere in our daily lives. In fact, Lim Kit Siang and other DAP leaders have clearly stated that Malaysia is a secular country.

For decades there has been utter confusion regarding Malaysia’s status, ever since Tunku Abdul Rahman announced that Malaysia is a secular country and Dr Mahathir contradicted that declaration and announced that Malaysia is not only an Islamic country but a fundamentalist Islamic country on top of that.

So which is it? Half the population of Malaysia says one thing while the other half says the opposite. And this one issue alone has badly divided Malaysians to the point where Muslims and non-Muslims hate each another (and do not pretend this is not true).

Okay, is this a case of confusion due to two conflicting announcements, or is it a case of misinterpreting the Federal Constitution of Malaysia? Or is it politicians manipulating the issue for political gain?

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RPK asked a relevant question which I will attempt to answer, as per my own humble opinion:

Firstly, a crescent in a national flag does not automatically indicate the nation is an Islamic State. Take for example the following nations:

1) Singapore

We needn't discuss whether this republic is Islamic, wakakaka.

2) Turkey as she prefers to be called today, Türkiye or in full Türkiye Cumhuriyeti

You may not believe that Turkey is a secular nation which started with founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1923) and still remains one despite today's very Islamic President Recep Erdogen gradually dismantling (but not completely yet) Ataturk's legacy of secularism.

Ataturk (meaning 'Father of Nation') adopted the flag and its crescent directly from the Ottoman Empire though two things changed. The star initially had 8 points but has been reduced to 5, whilst the green color was substituted with red in 1793. In the 19th Century, the Turkish authority emphasized that red indicated the colour of secularism. There was another legend during Ottoman Empire's time which stated that the crescent symbolised the worship of the Greek Goddess Artemis (Roman = Diana the Huntress).

Greek Goddess Artemis

3) Bangladesh

Not a crescent but a full moon - nonetheless the republic is still secular since its formation in 1972.

Wikipedia says: The new state of Bangladesh became the first constitutionally secular state in South Asia in 1972. Islam was declared the state religion in 1988. In 2010, the Bangladesh Supreme Court reaffirmed secular principles in the constitution.

You know something - Malaysia had gone through the exact same process as Bangladesh, that of the formation of a constitutionally secular nation with Islam as the official religion, and our own Courts had twice re-affirmed the secularity of our Constitution and nation.

4) Pakistan may astound you that she started as a constitutionally secular nation even under Founder Ali Jinnah, and t'was only in 1973 (26 years after her Independence as a sovereign nation separately with/from India) before she was declared an Islamic State. And then it took another 4 years before General Zia bulldozed Syariah implementation.

The delay in Pakistan becoming a full Islamic State at the onset (1947) was the very strong opposition to  Islamist ideological paradigm from the Bengali Muslims of East Pakistan, whose educated class, according to a survey by social scientist Nasim Ahmad Jawed, preferred secularism and focused on ethnic identity unlike educated West Pakistanis who tended to prefer an Islamic identity. When East Pakistan went independent and became Bangladesh (1972), West Pakistan or just Pakistan then declared itself as an Islamic nation.

I'll stop here and continue later, maybe tonight or tomorrow.