Germany offers Malaysia a timely lesson in tolerance

To answer that, perhaps we can look at what’s happening in Germany. 

For the past three months, a group there called Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against Islamisation of the West) has held weekly demonstrations against the alleged Muslim threat from radicals and refugees. From an initial few hundred, protest numbers grew to 25,000 after the Charlie Hebdo killings. 

But what is amazing is that an estimated 100,000 people throughout Germany staged counter-protests against Pegida. Some of them held brooms in a symbolic gesture to “sweep away” racism and intolerance. 

Meanwhile, the lights at Cologne’s landmark cathedral were switched off as a Pegida rally passed by, in a sign of religious disapproval. And the city’s Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki called on Germans to show compassion, rather than prejudice, towards Muslim refugees. 

Similarly, German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her New Year speech to urge people not to follow Pegida “for their hearts are cold and often full of prejudice, and even hate”.

Last week, the Chancellor spoke at a rally organised by German Muslims at Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate. “Hatred, racism and extremism have no place in this country... Islam belongs to Germany,” she said.

How could such moderate and multicultural political statements come from a country which, just 70 years ago, was under a Nazi ideology based on German racial supremacy?  

I was reminded of my chats over beer with German tourists in Thailand some time back.

“At school, we learn about how the Nazis came to power,” said one. “Don’t forget that Hitler was democratically elected as a leader.”

After reading up on the Internet, I found that German students do indeed have extensive lessons about the dangers of fascist and racist ideologies. They learn that after the 1929 economic crash, there was mass unemployment and social unrest in Germany which the Nazis exploited to attract popular support, blaming the country’s ills on Jews and foreigners. 

Hitler’s answer to the weak coalition governments then was strong leadership and “unity”, as epitomised by the slogan: Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer – “One People, One Nation, One Leader”.

Students also learn that one way the Nazis brainwashed ordinary Germans into supporting their ethnic cleansing was by controlling religion. In 1936, a National Reich Church was created, with a Nazi bishop at its head. Its members called themselves Deutsche Christen (“German Christians”) with “the Swastika on their chest and the Cross in their heart”, and many of the nationalistic and racist aspects of Nazi ideology were incorporated. 

These days, school groups also visit former concentration camps where millions of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and political opponents of Nazism were exterminated.

After decades of such progressive education policies warning against the racist ideologies of fascism, it’s perhaps not surprising that 100,000 Germans came out recently to protest in support of a minority – the Muslims.

In contrast, Japan’s conservative politicians have ordered that school textbooks gloss over World War II horrors perpetrated by Japanese troops, such as the Nanjing massacre and sex slaves. So, while wartime enemies Germany and France are now firm friends and jointly leading the European Union, old wounds still fester between Japan and China. 

Of course, German education policies have not had perfect results. Turks and Poles who live in Germany still face discrimination, but what’s important is that the country’s political and religious leaders have set the agenda for harmony.  

In Muslim-majority Malaysia, the closest parallel to the German support for a minority was seen a year ago. On the Sunday, January 5, 2014, Muslim groups had threatened mass protests against Christians who were adopting the word “Allah”. But instead of angry crowds, Christian parishioners at the main church in Klang were greeted by the sight of 20 non-Christians bearing flowers. 

“We are here to show solidarity with the congregation,” explained social activist Marina Mahathir and friends from the Sisters in Islam (SIS). “A lot of us here are Muslims and we believe Islam is a religion of peace. It is not something that we only say [in words], but there must also be action,” she told journalists outside the church.

Yet, for her brave action to foster religious harmony, she was condemned by groups like Perkasa, the Malaysian counterpart of Germany’s nationalist Pegida. In October, SIS was tarred by a fatwa from the Selangor Islamic Religious Council for being “religious deviationist” because it subscribed to “liberalism and religious pluralism”. 

A Google search of “Marina Mahathir” throws up “murtad” (renounced Islam) as one of the top items, with lots of links alleging her “apostasy”. Such low-brow tactics are chillingly similar to those adopted by the German anti-Muslim groups after Angela Merkel spoke up against them – they even published a photoshopped image of the Chancellor wearing a hijab. 

Muslims in Malaysia surely don’t like to see Muslims in Germany being falsely labelled a “threat” and bullied by racist groups like Pegida – and they must be glad that tens of thousands of ordinary Germans, along with political and religious leaders, have spoken up for “liberalism and religious pluralism” to ensure tolerance for all. 

But how will Muslims here respond the next time certain groups allege that Christians or other powerless minorities are a national “threat”? 

The futures of Germany and Malaysia will be determined by what each country’s majority community decide to do. We can only hope that each nation chooses the right way forward.