Shariah Compliance Efforts in the Malaysian Armed Forces Organisation by the Armed Forces Religious Corps (KAGAT)

Abstract

The Inculcation of Islamic Values Policy is a policy introduced by the Government of Malaysia in 1985 by the Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamad. This policy is a continuation of the efforts of the Malaysian government that have been accomplished such as the establishment of various organizations based on Islamic values. In line with that, the Malaysian Armed Forces organization is also working towards the application of values in Islam in the organization to erode the influence of the British military tradition which is contrary to the Malay and Islamic traditions. The establishment of the Religious Corps of the Malaysian Armed Forces in 1985 was one of the efforts toward Syariah compliance in the Malaysian Armed Forces. The objective of this study is to explore KAGAT’s efforts to meet shariah compliance requirements in ATM organizations. In addition, the objective of this study is to examine the approaches implemented to implement Shariah compliance in ATMs. This qualitative study uses library research methods and document review as data collection methods. While the thematic analysis method is used to analyze the data. The research findings show that Shariah compliance efforts have been implemented effectively using appropriate approaches. Shariah compliance has increased and brought a positive impact to the success of KAGAT in the implementation of dakwah more comprehensively and continuously to build a competent Malaysian Armed Forces with a strong combat force and a strong spirit. This study fills the gaps in the literature regarding aspects of Shariah compliance and methods used in the Malaysian Armed Forces because such studies are still so barely explored by past researchers.