A/HRC/40/53/Add.1 Rapporteur also welcomed the commitments of the Government of Malaysia to representing a “moderate and progressive Islam”, including important statements made to this effect by Najib Razak, the then-Prime Minister, while the Special Rapporteur was in the country: “The key to it is to support moderate and progressive Muslim regimes and governments around the world, because that is the true face of Islam; that is the authentic face of Islam.”18 72. However, many sectors of Malaysian society, including diverse government officials themselves, expressed concern at what they saw as the growing Islamization and Arabization of the society and polity, based on an increasingly rigid and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam which represents a significant break with the past and is giving rise to cultural engineering. One lawyer said, “I fear for my country.” A writer said, “There is a fire here. Wahhabism is creeping fast and deep into our society.” Some experts indicated that this tendency was infusing the educational system and affecting the corps of teachers, as well as “corroding values” among young people. It has reportedly also had deleterious consequences for the cultural rights of religious minorities, of indigenous peoples, of women, of human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, of artists and cultural experts and of many others in society, and most especially for the cultural rights and the freedom of religion or belief of Muslims and people of Muslim heritage. 73. Fundamentalist movements often seek to impose a form of religion at odds with diverse, syncretic local forms of practice. In keeping with the spirit of the slogan Malaysia Truly Asia, the Special Rapporteur hopes that the authorities will consider how to foster and allow to flourish the diversities of Malaysian Islam, which represent the plurality and complex history of South-East Asian Islams. Allowing religion to be homogenized under a hegemonic interpretation imported from the Arabian Peninsula, and Saudi Arabia in particular, undermines the cultural rights of Malaysians. 74. The Special Rapporteur salutes the stated commitment of the Government of Malaysia to combating terrorism, which is vital to the protection of human rights. However, she notes that acquiescing to aspects of the underlying ideology of terror groups, such as that there is only one way to be Muslim or that religion should be used as a tool of State policy, can create conditions that are conducive to the radicalization that heightens the risk of terror. She notes with concern that one state in the country, Kelantan, is referred to by some as “the Islamic State of Kelantan” by some of its state representatives with whom she met. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the pervasiveness of fundamentalism in many areas of Malaysia, but is especially concerned at the situation of cultural rights in this regard in the state of Kelantan where the state government is controlled by the Islamic Party of Malaysia (or PAS), and where a state education official told her that there was only one way to be Muslim and that any other form of practice was based on ignorance. She is also deeply concerned at the level of involvement of religious authorities, and often only those of the majority religion, in policy decisions throughout the country, including in relation to culture. 75. The Special Rapporteur is alarmed that Parliament has been considering adopting legislation under the RUU355 bill expanding the punishments – including corporal punishments that violate international human rights law – that can be imposed by Syariah Courts to up to a 30-year prison sentence, a RM 100,000 fine (approximately $23,920 in November 2018) and 100 lashes. She greatly regrets that some religious authorities with whom she met clearly support this expansion. Such punishments are difficult to rationalize with stated commitments to moderation and progressiveness. Experts fear that any such legislation would be used to discriminatory effect, with particular impact on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people among others. The future of the RUU355 bill was uncertain as the present report was being finalized. 76. The Special Rapporteur was concerned about the impact of a particular form of Islamization on the cultural rights of women through the imposition of a de facto dress code 18 See www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/09/12/remarks-president-trump-and-prime-ministernajib-abdul-razak-malaysia. 13