Factors Leading to Apostasy

Apostasy cases in Malaysia can be said as a result of

several major factors. They may distinctively vary with each
other but inconspicuously turned out to be resulting in the main
contributing factors that explains why we have so many
apostates today in Malaysia, and counting. For example the
practice of a secular system in so many ways in our country
slowly breeds doubt to unaware, lack of Islamic exposure
Muslims out there, thus later on triggers the idea of converting
to the other religion.
On top of that, were highlighting FOUR identifiable major
factors why this issue has failed to be curbed. They are :
a) Doesnt have a strong Islamic background
b) The practice of secularism
c) The spread of poverty and need of money
d) Uncensored streams of media

1. Doesnt have a strong Islamic background

This might be not noticeable for most people who take
Islamic education for granted, but the effects are gravely
serious.
As knowledge about Islam should be implemented from
childhood times, the ignorance of some unaware parents out
there about this matter shall become the reason why their
children might someday turn out to question Islam and have
some doubts about their faith.
Some of these kind of parents does not give a serious
attention to Islamic education to their children, such as didnt
send them to al-Quran recitation classes, fardhu ain classes etc.
They might think that those are not really important classes, or
just prioritizing on the other curricular classes, but as a
children, those classes are crucial to feed themselves with
Islamic education and strengthen their faith about what are
they believe in.

For example, the class of al-Quran recitation or learning

how to read al-Quran is the extremely important to be given to
children because that would be their guide for the rest of their
lives as a devoted Muslim. Without it, chances are they will
grow up to be a Muslim with a vacant heart. They have nothing
to hold their faith in their hearts, thus would probably resulting
in the idea of doubting Islam.
Other than that, those unaware parents might have sent
their children to non-Islamic schools, instead of Islamic schools.
This is also a very unwise decision because by not having their
children schooled in a Islamic school, their children will grow up
in a non-Islamic environment, and by time they will feel that
they are more comfortable to be like that. An Islamic
environment, by which, means that an environment where the
implementation of Islam and Islamic values are there such as a
school with surau, Islamic classes and lectures, solat jamaah,
religious talks etc, is really important to the children for the
sake of strengthening their Islamic roots.
Source : www.renaissance.com.pk

2. The practice of secularism

Secularism is defined as principle of separation of
government institutions, and the persons mandated to
represent the State, from religious institutions and religious
dignitaries.
In the other words, secularism is a system that applies
that Islamic education, or matters and the other worldly
matters should be put apart. A well example of the practice of
secularism in Malaysia is the system of curriculum in schools,
the fine line between SMK(A) and SMK and the issue of court
system in Malaysia that is separated into two; Syariah Court
and Civil Court. But in our case we are going to take a look into
the system of schools in Malaysia.
In primary schools Islamic knowledge subjects such as
Fardhu Ain, is not taken as the subject that is obligatory, as the
other subjects such as Science, Mathematics and English
Language. This, though is not the issue, but it will makes the

student to become less conscientious in studying those

subjects and more inclined to focus on the other subjects.
In the other curriculum subjects in schools, the element of
Islam is not stated and not implemented at all. For instance,
take a look into the Science text book. Science in schools
basically are all about the fundamental knowledge about the
things around us; air and what it contains, night and day
phenomenon, the formation of rains etc., and it states the stepby-step details about the processes that triggers all the
phenomenon. By this the children would just see that all those
things would only relate to Science, and have nothing to do
with Islam. They would only think that Science and Islam are
fully apart.
This are obviously violating the fact that the Science is
actually in Islam itself, and there are a lot of verses in the Holy
al-Quran that stated about Science and all the processes, but in
a secular way of school, those things would remain untold. The
children would then, ponder into questions regarding Islam and
Science like, How are Islam supposed to be right all the way if
it only applies to some of the things but not Science?
Source: http://islamweb.net
3. The spread of poverty and need of money
We cannot deny the fact that there are Muslims out there
that are born and raised in a poor condition. Some of them are
really poor and desperate; they couldnt even afford to buy
food or to have a shelter.
Regarding that, there exists organisations that claim that
the sole purpose of their groups are to help those homeless,
unemployed and poor people and provide them with their basic
necessity like food, shelter etc. But God knows some of them
are not genuinely that decent; there lies an evil plan behind
that lures behind the mission, which is to approach them
Muslim and slowly guide that to deviate from Islam.
Those organizations are not a lie, for it is really happening
out there. Particularly, these are organisations that stands
under the church, or a Christian missionaries movement, in
which their one and only purpose is to approach Muslims and
lure them to convert and become a Christian. These

movements, discreetly moving under the name of charity cases

and to help those who are needy, but truthfully aims to lure
the unfortunate Muslims to fulfilling their worldly needs at the
cost of their Islamic faith.
These organizations provide shelters for them, food and
even money to start a business, but in return they are obligated
to follow certain courses that will slowly deviate them from
Islamic teachings.
In shelter houses things will be much easier for them to
accomplish what they desire, because nobody would ever know
what activities that they run inside there, or what are the things
that they do the vulnerable Muslims.

Source : http://worldwatchmonitor.org
4. Uncensored streams of media
Medias are one of the most powerful tools that can be
effectively used to influence people. In light of this IT age, there
are tonnes of media out there, such as TV, radios, social
networking, video streaming, chat forums, Internet etc., but
were going to narrow down the scope and focus to the effect of
Internet.
In Malaysia, Internet censorship for religious matters is not
applied, and as a result some irresponsible people out there
takes advantage of the it and abuse it to spread false words to
Muslim in Malaysia.
Take a good look into one of the most popular Internet
social networking in the world, Facebook. Facebook has become
a medium for some people to insult Islam and gather exMuslims, or apostates in Malaysia via groups. Vulnerable
Muslims such as adolescent and teenagers or those who can be
easily influenced are exposed to these threats, and they might
even fall for it.
As an example, there is a Facebook group named ExMuslims in Malaysia that have thousands of followers and
growing, gather around and talk about their new lives as a nonMuslim. Some of them even posted statements that are
extremely blasphemous, such as the insult to Prophet

Muhammad (S.A.W) etc. These will somehow become a medium

to recruit or to find vulnerable Muslims to be brainwashed, so
that they will convert to the other religion.
Other than that, there are also websites that functions as
the groups in Facebook, that is to gather all the ex-Muslims in
Malaysia, and to find more members. One of the example is
http://apostatesinmalaysia.wordpress.com/

Figure 1 : The webpage of the website. You can see that it is openly states that it
offers a safe place for those who trapped in Islam in Malaysia