The Mahathir administration's war against Islamic militancy: operational and ideological challenges

Fundamentalism is a behavioural question, a psychology which cannot be fought with armadas, but only with other ideas.

King Hassan II

When the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat everything like a nail

Abraham Maslow

This article assesses the Malaysian government's confrontation with Islamic militancy in its domestic political sphere. It suggests that while the operational capacity of the Malaysian state and security forces has successfully and effectively crippled militant Islamic organisations on the home front, the long‐term success in the battle against Islamic militancy lies not in operational capacity but in the realm of the ideological contest, and it is here that the current focus on the intensification of state control and surveillance as the best means to counter militant Islam may well prove to be a misplaced strategy that will undermine the key objective of undercutting sympathy and support for those militant groups purporting to engage in an Islamic struggle. It further suggests that while many of the hard‐line counter‐terrorism strategies were formulated during the Mahathir administration, there is little indication that the government of Abdullah Badawi will moderate Malaysia's policies on Islamic militancy.