KUALA LUMPUR, 10 March 2004 — The struggle for Islamic hearts and minds in Malaysia’s elections shaped up yesterday as a contest with global resonance as the government pressed a modernist agenda despite a strong challenge from fundamentalists.

While the conservative opposition is promising heaven to its supporters, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is offering Islamic rule which stresses science as much as religion and protects the rights of nonbelievers.

In a series of rallies ahead of elections on March 21, Abdullah has presented a vision of “Islam Hadhari”, or Islamic governance, with the message that “Islam is a religion for development”.

“It is about working hard, hunger for knowledge and information in science and technology,” he told crowds of potential voters. “God willing we will then develop according to Islam.”

Malaysia already ranks as one of the most developed Muslim countries in the world, having transformed a commodity-based economy over the past two decades into a high-tech manufacturing powerhouse.

The forthcoming election reflects the struggle between the ancient and the modern in Islamic countries as diverse as Iraq and Indonesia, both bedeviled by armed extremists fighting in the name of Islamic purity, analysts say. “The opposition’s version of Islam is puritanical,” said P. Ramasamy of the National University of Malaysia.

PAS controls two of Malaysia’s 13 states, both in the rural northeast of paddy fields and coconut palms, while Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur boasts gleaming skyscrapers, an overhead monorail system and six-lane highways jammed with modern vehicles.

PAS wants Malaysia to be governed by Shariah laws complete with amputations and stoning to death, and party president Abdul Hadi Awang challenged the prime minister yesterday to state openly his stand on Islamic law. “Abdullah has not reacted or voiced his opinion on the issue and this is not appropriate of a prime minister,” he said in a statement.

Malaysia’s population of 25 million includes large minorities of ethnic Chinese and Indians who make up more than a third of voters and therefore hold the balance of power, so Abdullah’s bold rejection of fundamentalism has been seen by some as a necessary election tactic.

But he is an Islamic scholar, having graduated in Islamic studies at university, and observers have watched closely to see whether he would ease up on the development path set by his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad, who retired last October.

“Abdullah has Islamic credentials so he is exercising that knowledge. UMNO has to wrestle back the Islamic monopoly from PAS,” said Abdul Razak Baginda, executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center.

Abdullah said the government’s introduction of “Islam Hadhari” was centered on “how to become a good Muslim, the need to be honest and hardworking. “We want the promotion of Islam in moderation with various races living together in harmony.”