Involvements in Islam
After making Islam the official religion in 1960, Abdul Rahman established the Islamic Welfare Organisation (PERKIM), an organisation to help Muslim converts adjust to new lives as Muslims. He was President of PERKIM until a year before his death. In 1961 Malaysia hosted the first International Qur'an Recital Competition, an event that developed from Abdul Rahman's idea when he organised the first state-level competition in Kedah in 1951.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday, Abdul Rahman stated in the 9 February 1983 edition of the newspaper The Star that the "country has a multi-racial population with various beliefs. Malaysia must continue as a secular State with Islam as the official religion." In the same issue of The Star, Abdul Rahman was supported by the third Malaysian Prime Minister, Hussein Onn, who stated that the "nation can still be functional as a secular state with Islam as the official religion."
Read more about this topic: Tunku Abdul Rahman
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)