Here's one for the rednecks here... Fundamentalist Islamic nations coming to get us??......Not Malaysia anyway..
By Jonathan Lynn KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in for a new term Monday after a stunning election victory that routed the Islamist opposition and strengthened his hold over his fractious party.
Abdullah's multi-ethnic Barisan Nasional coalition won one of the biggest election victories in Malaysian history, surprising those who had dismissed the softly spoken scholar as a faceless time-server in the shadow of his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad.
Abdullah took over from the veteran leader only in October, but the extent of his victory gives him a powerful mandate to pursue his own vision of economic development and intensify a crackdown on corruption.
Whereas Mahathir's abrasive style and the jailing and humiliation of his deputy Anwar Ibrahim drove many Malays into the arms of the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), Abdullah's courteous manner and moral standing won them back, leaving PAS on the edge of the political wilderness.
His model of a tolerant and progressive Islam turned out to be a vote winner in the northern Malay heartland that PAS had sought to turn into the main battleground of the election.
Abdullah extended Barisan's grip on the federal parliament to about 90 percent, easily surpassing the two-thirds majority needed to pass laws and rebuilding support for his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) that dominates Barisan.
