Fathul Bari Mat Jahaya said Marina talked about the disappearance of local cultural elements but the way she presented herself to the public did not reflect Malay elements or culture.
“The way she promotes herself is not very Malay in itself.
“If, for example, she dresses in a kebaya or wears batik attire, it would show Malay cultural elements,” he said.
“There is no need for her to talk about Saudi Arabian culture entering (Malaysia). Nowadays Western culture has come in. Is she talking about that?” he told FMT today.
He asked why Marina kept quiet when the country was being inflicted by the “yellow culture”, such as those found in “very bad” concerts and festivals.
“If she has spoken up, it’ll be all right. But she has not,” he said, questioning if she was bringing Western culture into the country to reject Islamic culture.
Marina, a founding member of Sisters in Islam, was reported by the Asia Times yesterday as pinning the deepening trend of Islamisation in Malaysia to the influence of Saudi Arabia.
“There’s this idea that the more like Arabs you are, the better Muslim you are.
“That’s the very real obliteration of our cultural heritage,” she was quoted as saying.
“Arab culture is spreading, and I would lay the blame completely on Saudi Arabia,” said Marina, the eldest daughter of PPBM chairman and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Fathul, who is also an Umno Youth executive council member, said if Saudi Arabia brought violence or negative cultural traits to Malaysia, they should be rejected.
“But what if they bring Islam and try to highlight Islamic justice, peace, prosperity, such as in the King Salman Centre?”
The Asia Times report said there were indications that Prime Minister Najib Razak was leveraging his relationship with Saudi King Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud to boost his Islamic credentials in an attempt to appeal to religious hardliners, far-right Malay groups and conservative rural Muslim voters.
In July this year, Najib had announced the government’s decision to earmark a 16ha piece of land in Putrajaya to build a new “centre for peace” named after the Saudi king.
The King Salman Centre for International Peace (KSCIP) followed a highly-publicised visit by the Saudi ruler to Malaysia last March as well as Najib’s participation in a summit in Riyadh attended by US President Donald Trump.
It was reported that the Muslim World League (MWL), an organisation heavily funded by the Saudi government to prop up the kingdom’s Islamic image worldwide, was also involved in the new centre.
MWL had for decades acted as Riyadh’s chief mouthpiece through the publication of Islamic materials and the financing of mosques and Islamic centres from Asia to Europe.
Marina: Saudis to blame for Malaysia’s ‘Arabisation’, loss of local culture
Report: Malaysia’s slide towards conservative Islam and intolerance will continue
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