Dennis Ignatius
~ Provoking discussion, dissent & debate on politics, diplomacy, human rights & civil society.
The worst of Muslims and the rest of us
15SundayNov 2026
[1] On the eve of yesterday’s Melaka polls, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang once again reminded us of who he really is: not a statesman, not a unifier, but a preacher of hate and division who hides behind religious robes.
[2] Speaking at a joint BN-PN rally in Bukit Katil on Thursday night, Hadi told more than a thousand supporters that “the most wicked of Muslims, the worst of Muslims governing the country, are not as oppressive as non-Muslims.”[1]
[3] Read that again. The worst Muslim ruler – the corrupt, the cruel, the tyrannical – is, in Hadi’s telling, still preferable to any non-Muslim, however honest, however capable, however just. Character counts for nothing; competence counts for nothing. Only the label matters. His message is clear: there are no good non-Muslims, they are all corrupt and oppressive — worse even than the worst Muslim and deserve to be shut out completely.
[4] His office now claims he was quoted out of context[2], but that is hard to accept when the remark fits an all-too-familiar pattern. In 2022, Hadi claimed that non-Muslims and non-Bumiputeras were the ones most involved in corruption[3] – it became a police case that quietly went nowhere.
[4] In truth, Hadi has little to offer on the issues that matter. Instead, he fills the void with a familiar political tactic: demonising non-Muslims and weaponising fear. He invokes the sacred to mask the absence of real solutions. Vote for the wrong side, and you offend God; oppose him, and you oppose the faith itself. It is cheap politics draped in piety.
[5] If anyone wonders why non-Muslims recoil at the very idea of an Islamic state, they need look no further than Hadi. He makes the case against it more eloquently than any critic ever could. Who would want to live in Hadi’s hate-filled dystopia?
[6] What troubles me most, however, is not Hadi. Bigots we will always have. It is the silence that greets him. His remarks are a distortion; they poison national unity and insult millions of Malaysians who pay their taxes, serve this nation and love it no less than anyone else. Imagine, for a moment, a non-Muslim leader declaring that the worst non-Muslim was better than any Muslim. There would be police reports by the dozen, protests in the streets, perhaps worse. Yet when Hadi says it, the system shrugs.
[7] It is good that some Pakatan Harapan leaders have spoken out[4], but where are the muftis and the other religious authorities who are always so quick to pronounce on everything else? Where are all the other politicians who claim to speak for a moderate, inclusive faith?
[8] Hadi campaigned, ironically, on behalf of coalitions that include non-Muslim parties such as MCA and MIC. One wonders how those parties can campaign alongside a man who believes their own members, however upright, are more oppressive than the most wicked of Muslims.
[9] Most disappointing of all is the silence from the Prime Minister who has thus far said little on the issue. Leadership is not measured by speeches abroad on an inclusive, compassionate Islam; it is measured by the courage to stand up at home when it matters. When millions of Malaysians are told they are worse than the most wicked of Muslims, a prime minister’s silence is not statesmanship; it is abdication. He shouldn’t think that it goes unnoticed.
[10] This is how a secular democracy dies: not with a coup, but through a thousand small surrenders. Every politician who looks the other way for the sake of ambition makes the next outrage easier. Each unanswered provocation lowers the bar; each silence emboldens. Over the decades, we have watched the space for reason shrink, the vision of our founding fathers fade, and men like Hadi grow bolder.
[11] I will not presume to counter Hadi on theological grounds; that is for those far more qualified than I, and I hope they will find the courage to do so. But one does not need to be a theologian to recognise bigotry, nor to call it by its name. What Hadi peddles is prejudice dressed in the language of faith. He must be called out, exposed and rejected at every turn and at every ballot box. Our silence is his strength.
[12] We must not give up or give in, not while we still can. To give up is to let men like Hadi win. The Malaysia our founding fathers envisaged is still worth fighting for. It belongs to all of us. We must not surrender it to the bigots.
[Dennis Ignatius |Kuala Lumpur |15 November 2026]
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