They were handcuffed on stage and threatened with harsh punishment under the hudud, an Islamic criminal code which specifies stoning for adulterers and amputation for thieves. Dr Mahathir has since curtailed the power of local religious bodies in legal matters. Many Malaysians will criticise, or even joke about the rising influence of the clerics, but few are willing publicly to repudiate the hardliners. Muslims make up only 60 per cent or Malaysia's population, but ethnic Chinese and Indian groups are also feeling the growing pressure of Islam. Few complain of a lack of religious freedom, but Islam is omnipresent - in schools, at work, in the media.
Most people reject any kind of fundamentalism, be it Islamic or anything else.
But I'm worried that if things carry on in this insidious way, all of us might one day wake up in an oppressive Islamic state, and be powerless to change it.