RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.spiked-online.com/author/kunwar-khuldune-shahid/

Malaysia’s slide towards Islamic fundamentalism appears to be unstoppable.

In Terengganu, a state on the west coast governed by the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), two-year prison terms and fines of up to 3,000 ringgit (£527) are to be imposed on men who skip Friday prayers. The authority for these punishments comes from the Hadith, or sayings of Muhammed – a source of much of the Sharia law that governs Malaysia’s approximately 20million Muslims.

This new law is extreme even by Islamist standards. Not even theocracies like Iran and Saudi Arabia imprison and fine prayer-dodgers. The Taliban, which is the most oppressive Islamic regime in the world, limits the offence to government employees.

This turn towards radical Islam in Malaysia, a popular destination for Western tourists and long considered a moderate Muslim country, has been decades in the making. In the 1980s, Malaysia’s ‘Islamic Revival’ was led by its longest-serving prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir’s 1981 manifesto, ‘The Malay Dilemma’, merged nationalism with Islam, and emphasised the difference between native and Chinese Malays. He oversaw the Islamification of Malaysia’s politics and, critically, its education system.

Only now are we beginning to comprehend the impact of Mahathir’s reforms. In Malaysia today, prison sentences are enforced not only over missed prayers, but for eating during daylight hours in Ramadan. In 2019, a man was handed a 10-year prison sentence for ‘anti-religious activity’ online – effectively a blasphemy offence. Last year, a father of five was publicly caned at a mosque in Terengannu for the Sharia crime of ‘close proximity between unmarried couples’. Police in Kelantan – a state also governed by the PAS – arrested 20 men for hosting what the authorities described as a ‘gay party’ just last month.

It isn’t just sexual minorities under threat in Malaysia. Shia Muslims – of whom there are roughly 200,000 – were referred to as a ‘national security threat’ by a prominent Sunni cleric in 2018. Religious extremists have marched under banners that urge the government to ‘eradicate Shias from Malaysia’. A government fatwa that designates the sect as ‘deviant’ gives police the authority to harass and persecute Shias almost as they please.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/europes-elites-want-a-great-replacement/

One of the consequences of the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, was this: they reminded native Europeans that a good many of the millions of Muslims who live in their countries are not necessarily the friendly bearers of cultural enrichment that politicians claim them to be. After Gazans massacred Israelis on such a terrifying scale, native Europeans were compelled to recognize that the same thing could happen – tomorrow morning – on their own turf. Little wonder that anti-immigration parties have won more support.

And nowhere in Europe, perhaps, has awareness of the danger of mass immigration spiked more than in Britain. A handful of brave souls have been talking about the Muslim rape gangs for years, but even now precious few of the perpetrators have been brought to justice. A not inconsiderable percentage of Muslims in Britain admit to pollsters that they’d like to see the country subjected to sharia law. A long list of major British cities have Muslim mayors. Even as native Brits struggle to find decent, affordable housing, the government is putting Muslim illegals up in luxury hotels.

Those who dare to complain publicly about any of these things risk arrest and prosecution. Indeed, while people are allowed to march in the streets waving Hamas flags, displaying the Union Jack or the St. George’s cross – the flag of England – is treated as a crime. For years, both the Conservatives and Labourites have repeatedly promised to reduce immigration and repeatedly broken their promises. Reform UK, the party whose electoral fortunes have skyrocketed as a result, seems too timid to do what’s necessary to rescue the UK from full Islamization.

Perfect timing, then, for an article in the Guardian arguing that Britain, and indeed all of Europe, needs to increase immigration levels. “Those wanting to shut Europe’s borders,” avers the British journalist Alex Clark, “must contend with a stark demographic reality: the continent’s native population is expected to fall sharply over the next century in an era of low birth rates.” So if anti-immigration parties take control in Europe and actually succeed in reducing immigration rates, it “could speed up the population decline of Europe, creating economic shocks including slower growth and soaring costs from pensions and elderly care.”

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/09/07/is-any-place-safe-to-visit-anymore-n4943423

I’ve always thought I’d eventually make it to the United Kingdom. It’s one of those “bucket list” destinations—castles, history, the pubs, the whole cultural experience, even the Harry Potter experience. But truth be told, over the past several years my appetite for visiting has cooled considerably. Sometimes the decline of a nation unfolds so quickly, you feel as though you’re watching it in real time. 

PJ Media previously reported on the recent arrest of Graham Linehan, the man behind the sitcoms Father Ted and The IT Crowd, and the whole incident has pushed the UK squarely into the category of places I may never set foot in. Short of a total course correction in British culture and politics, I can’t imagine ever going. 

Earlier this month, Linehan touched down at Heathrow from the U.S. and was immediately surrounded by five armed police officers—and then arrested for three tweets he posted back in April. His “crime”? Pointing out that letting a biological male into female-only spaces is, by definition, a violent, abusive act. He even joked that if authorities won’t step in to protect women, maybe ordinary people will have to. Predictably, critics ran with the line about “punch him in the b***s,” portraying it as some dire threat of violence. But anyone with half a brain could see it for what it was: hyperbole, a comedian mocking the absurdity of the world we’ve let ourselves live in. In Britain today, though, nuance is dead—and so is free speech.

Even Linehan’s bail conditions were an Orwellian overreach, banning him from accessing social media altogether. Those restrictions were only lifted on Saturday, highlighting again how intrusive and destructive the system is becoming. Public figures remain deeply split—some insist the police response was grossly disproportionate while others call his tweets “totally unacceptable.” Yet no one even questions the biggest outrage: that a citizen was placed in handcuffs over words.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21891/bangladesh-yunus-authoritarian

The silencing of Bangladesh’s media is not just about censorship — it is part of a larger transformation of the country into a breeding ground for radical Islamist politics that threatens the stability of the entire region.

By criminalizing the press, Yunus is dismantling the very institutions that could hold his interim regime accountable, while empowering Islamist groups that thrive in darkness.

Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladeshi franchise of Al-Qaeda, openly justifies murdering secular writers and bloggers by branding them “enemies of Islam.”

Yunus’s reliance on Islamist allies such as Jamaat-e-Islami undermines this role by pushing Bangladesh into a trajectory that will likely make it hostile to US interests.

If Bangladesh descends further into authoritarianism and Islamist radicalization, it risks becoming another Afghanistan — a sanctuary for extremist groups with transnational ambitions.

Washington cannot afford to remain silent while an unelected regime dismantles democracy and silences the media in Bangladesh.

Yunus has promised elections in February 2026, but his Islamist allies are already signaling their intention to sabotage the process. If the media remains silenced, if journalists remain in prison, the path is clear: Bangladesh will be robbed of its democracy and its people robbed of their voice.

Bangladesh stands at a dangerous crossroads. The persecution of journalists under Yunus is not merely an assault on freedom of expression – it is the deliberate dismantling of democracy itself. Every day that Monjurul Alam Panna and other journalists remain behind bars, Bangladesh moves closer to becoming another Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

If Yunus’s regime is not challenged now, Bangladesh will not just lose its democracy — it will proceed to export instability across South Asia.

For years, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been synonymous with the brutal silencing of dissent, turning his country into one of the world’s largest prisons for journalists. Today, shockingly, Bangladesh — once hailed as a moderate Muslim democracy — is following the same dangerous path under the unelected, military-backed rule of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Since the Islamist-backed coup of 2024 that installed Yunus in power, the country has witnessed an unprecedented assault on freedom of the press. Journalists have been dragged to jail under trumped-up charges, assaulted in courtrooms, and criminalized under the vague Anti-Terrorism Act. The once vibrant Bangladeshi media, long known for its resilience, is now suffocating under a regime that increasingly mirrors Taliban-style authoritarianism.