ABSTRACT
When Malaysia was granted independence by the British colonial government in 1957, Islam and Malay politics were the main formal reference points in the conceptualization of the independent new state structure. Even though a federal form of constitution based on parliamentary democracy was the basis of the 1956 drafting of the Constitution, Islam became the official religion and pre-eminence was given to the political status of the Malays in the constitutional arrangements of the new state (see Suffian, Lee and Trindale 1978). The federal constitution established in 1957 specified that
Islam shall be the religion of the state of Malaya, but nothing in this article shall prevent any citizen professing any religion other than Islam, to profess, practice and propagate that religion, nor shall any citizen be under any disability by reason of not being Muslim.
