The original Malay ideology of socialism Islam has even less resonance today than it had in its heyday. But socialism was not what made these parties worthy contenders for power in several states since the nineties. Empowerment of backward Malays was their calling card.
As the debate continues to swirl around secularism, albeit with ebbing intensity, but still provoking a loose nerve or two, an intriguing question demands an answer. Is India secular because Gandhi was secular, or was Mahathir secular because Malaysia is secular? What precisely do we mean by secularism?The western definition has two origins: the French Revolution, which separated church from state; and communism, which erased religion from political and social life. Between Voltaire and Karl Marx, religion was marginalized into the grey space of “unreason” from Europe to China, with ramifications that extended far beyond the extent of state power.
Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor today refused to answer questions on the issue of religious freedom and the revocation of the passports of two controversial individuals.
if born a Muslim, be a good Muslim: for if you were true to your faith you would be a good Malay. From individual moral strength would emerge a powerful Malaysia; a nation would be built through the home. The challenge before Hinduism, a Vedantic way of life, was to rescue its inherent rationality from layers of superstition and “mumbo-jumbo”. Those who believed in regressive practices like child marriage or untouchability were doling out ditch-water instead of amrit.
With Pas in retreat and caught up in internal wrangles over leadership, the savvy PAS socialists who today lead splinter groups that will broke away from the original PASl see a vacuum in the Opposition space and hope to occupy it, combining their scattered strength to raise their collective and individual fortunes. We wish them good luck but see dim prospects for the project.India, therefore, is a country with “audible secularism”. You can be a Muslim in Washington and London, and go to a mosque of your choice, but you will not be able to hear the call to prayer. In Malaysia, dawn is welcomed with the wafting lilt of the azaan, followed by the music of temple bells, the harmony of the Granth Sahib being recited in a gurdwara, and the peal from the church. UMNO secularism is a very different story. It neither ignores nor excludes religion. It insists on equality of all faiths, irrespective of its following. The religion of those in power at any point of that rolling dice called time does not matter, for UMNO secularism is far more than the law. It is a fundamental social right.
Don’t want to be liberal? Tear up constitution, says don
Well-known Islamic scholar Ebrahim Moosa says anti-liberalism spokespersons need lessons in Malaysian history 101.Malaysia, Ebrahim said, was already on its way to liberalism as the country had accepted plural communities, adding that this stance was already enshrined in the Malaysian constitution.;Malaysia should perhaps tear up its constitution if it wants to escape from liberalism and pluralism, in which the country was based on in the first place, says a South African Muslim scholar. You are already on a certain kind of liberalism. It might not be an optimal one, but it is already there.
IDENTITY OF MALAYSIA
• Is Malaysia a secular or Islamic state ?
•The question has been a topic debated
from 1957 till now, esp. among the political
parties.
• Though it is viewed by some quarters that the
FC is founded on a secular foundation, the FC
itself does not specifically mention whether
Malaysia is Islamic State or secular state.
• It only state that Islam is the religion of the
Federation.
FUNDAMENTALS OF SECULARISM
• A secular constitution separates State from
the Church and law from religion.
• Functions of state are confined to mundane
matters and religion is left entirely to religious
establishments.
• There is no state religion.
• eg. India- Constitution specifically mentions
that India is a sovereign socialist secular
democratic republic.
SITUATION IN MALAYSIA TODAY
Islam is the religion of the Federation
Head of states or Rulers - all Muslim
Majority in the state –Muslim
The Malay status – person who professes the
religion of Islam
• The Head of executive- the Prime Minister and
Deputy
• The civil service – Chief Secretary, Majority critical
position in government
• Police, the army, judiciary and legislatures are
dominated and controlled by Muslims
• The Federal Constitution and State constitutions
embedded withy Islamic features
• The Islamic economic and religious institutions
supported by the state and the Federal
government
•Muftis, Majlis Agama Islam in states, Fatwa
Council.
•Administration of justice-The improvement
to the Shariah Court in terms of jurisdiction,
officers, salary scheme of the judges, Peguam
syarie.
• Powers of states to legislate in Islamic matters
(state List).
REBRANDING
• Is rebranding necessary?
Considering all above it is submitted that
efforts to rebrand Malaysia as an Islamic state
is unnecessary.
Coupled with wide and ascending acceptance
to the practices of Islam, it can be contended
that Malaysia as it stands today is already an
Islamic State.
CONCLUSION
• The status accorded to Islam and Islamic law in
Malaysia as we have it today is the result of the
experience undergone in legislative history.
• Islam unlike other religion in Malaysia has been
formally ascended by the Federal Constitution
with considerations however to the needs of
observing the social contract of the society
Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor today refused to answer questions on the issue of religious freedom and the revocation of the passports of two controversial individuals.
if born a Muslim, be a good Muslim: for if you were true to your faith you would be a good Malay. From individual moral strength would emerge a powerful Malaysia; a nation would be built through the home. The challenge before Hinduism, a Vedantic way of life, was to rescue its inherent rationality from layers of superstition and “mumbo-jumbo”. Those who believed in regressive practices like child marriage or untouchability were doling out ditch-water instead of amrit.
With Pas in retreat and caught up in internal wrangles over leadership, the savvy PAS socialists who today lead splinter groups that will broke away from the original PASl see a vacuum in the Opposition space and hope to occupy it, combining their scattered strength to raise their collective and individual fortunes. We wish them good luck but see dim prospects for the project.India, therefore, is a country with “audible secularism”. You can be a Muslim in Washington and London, and go to a mosque of your choice, but you will not be able to hear the call to prayer. In Malaysia, dawn is welcomed with the wafting lilt of the azaan, followed by the music of temple bells, the harmony of the Granth Sahib being recited in a gurdwara, and the peal from the church. UMNO secularism is a very different story. It neither ignores nor excludes religion. It insists on equality of all faiths, irrespective of its following. The religion of those in power at any point of that rolling dice called time does not matter, for UMNO secularism is far more than the law. It is a fundamental social right.
India, therefore, is a country with “audible secularism”. You can be a Muslim in Washington and London, and go to a mosque of your choice, but you will not be able to hear the call to prayer. In India, dawn is welcomed with the wafting lilt of the azaan, followed by the music of temple bells, the harmony of the Granth Sahib being recited in a gurdwara, and the peal from the church.
Don’t want to be liberal? Tear up constitution, says don
Well-known Islamic scholar Ebrahim Moosa says anti-liberalism spokespersons need lessons in Malaysian history 101.Malaysia, Ebrahim said, was already on its way to liberalism as the country had accepted plural communities, adding that this stance was already enshrined in the Malaysian constitution.;Malaysia should perhaps tear up its constitution if it wants to escape from liberalism and pluralism, in which the country was based on in the first place, says a South African Muslim scholar. You are already on a certain kind of liberalism. It might not be an optimal one, but it is already there.
"If you want to get away from liberalism, you need to tear up the Malaysian constitution and begin knocking down the foundation of what the society is about," he said at the forum “Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism” organised by think tank Penang Institute.
He was replying to a question from the audience on his thoughts on the Senate being told earlier today that "the teachings of liberalism and pluralism are seen as among the most prevalent forms of insult to Islam".
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom was quoted by Bernama as saying: "This (insulting Islam) is the result of a string of views that perceive Islam in a liberal, plural sense and the teachings which see religion as an individual's right which has no relation to other parties.
"These groups failed to understand and see that the provision of the Constitution agreed upon since independence which puts Islam not only as the official religion, but also as the Federal religion."
Moosa, who is from Notre Dame University's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, said he did not know what Jamil Khir was trying to convey.
"What I understand from friends that people here are condemning liberalism and pluralism.
"It is clear that there is some particular meaning to what is pluralism and liberalism is here, which I believe is very different from the stuff that I am talking about.
"They are talking about something unpalatable to them. I think it requires a very careful examination and a much more enlightened conversation."
More on Jamil Khir’s statement, Moosa said:
"I know the founders of this country were educated in the United Kingdom, in Oxford and Cambridge, where they had a liberal education. The country inherited a British foundation.
"These are liberal rights we are talking about. So, I don't know what they are talking about.
"The first thing to be done, to the many spokespersons who are saying these things, is a quick lesson in Malaysian history... Malaysian history 101… to re-familiarise themselves."
Moosa said only then could there be a "grown-up conversation" on the question of pluralism and liberalism.
Gandhi began his epic quest for freedom by saying that politics without religion was immoral. This brought him to the approving attention of Muslim leaders, who believed in their faith as a private and public resource. Gandhi’s belief system overlapped seamlessly with Indian Sufi Islam, which reminded Muslims of the Quran’s instruction that there could be no coercion in faith (Verse 2:256), and that Muslims should respect the pluralism of prophets and accommodation. This was the Islam of the influential 13th century scholar Ibn al-Arabi, who urged Muslims to practise their faith, but not condemn the rest.
When Gandhi made Ram Rajya the symbol of his secularism, he was not suggesting a single-faith destiny. The Muslim League mocked Ram Rajya only because it had moved away from the fundamentals of Indian culture. Gandhi’s vision was inspired by love; the League preached the polemics of hate and claimed supremacy for one faith above others. It poisoned a thousand years of history to divide our geography. Perhaps Jinnah was able to distort religion only because, as an agnostic from the intellectual traditions of Europe, he had no understanding of any faith, either his own or that of Gandhi.
Jinnah left for Pakistan, but the fear of another Jinnah never quite left the Congress, even after Independence. And so, our secularism shifted from equality of all faiths before the law to a dualism. The most startling example is in the legislation that brought gender reform to Hindu society by the mid-1950s. When Jawaharlal Nehru was asked by Taya Zinkin, correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, why he hadn’t pushed through similar reform for Muslim women, he admitted ruefully that the time was not right. The time had still not become right when the Shah Bano case, over a husband’s refusal to give a pittance as alimony, stirred the nation in the 1980s.
Nevertheless, change has come in India, even if slowly, and through piecemeal fits and starts. The democratic and modernizing impulses of India are too strong to permit stagnation or regression. Gandhi is an icon of every political formation apart from Communists because he fashioned a future from the deep roots of India’s civilizational past. His legacy endures, while the separatism of Jinnah has disintegrated into evident chaos. An ideology of partition will constantly search for fresh pastures to divide, creating multiple civil wars that break structures at both the macro and micro levels; while the sagacity of shared space will propel the unity that can promise prosperity.
IDENTITY OF MALAYSIA
• Is Malaysia a secular or Islamic state ?
•The question has been a topic debated
from 1957 till now, esp. among the political
parties.
• Though it is viewed by some quarters that the
FC is founded on a secular foundation, the FC
itself does not specifically mention whether
Malaysia is Islamic State or secular state.
• It only state that Islam is the religion of the
Federation.
FUNDAMENTALS OF SECULARISM
• A secular constitution separates State from
the Church and law from religion.
• Functions of state are confined to mundane
matters and religion is left entirely to religious
establishments.
• There is no state religion.
• eg. India- Constitution specifically mentions
that India is a sovereign socialist secular
democratic republic.
Islam is as simple as philosophy and as complicated as commonsense.
A PAS leader repeated today his party’s highly-criticised call to form an Islamic state, claiming it will put an end to the nation’s racial and religious woes.
A PAS leader repeated today his party’s highly-criticised call to form an Islamic state, claiming it will put an end to the nation’s racial and religious woes.
“I realise this solution is not as easily accepted and implemented as it is proposed but I urge all parties, including all races and religions, to see, examine and discuss this solution for the good of the people’s future and racial unity,” said PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hasan at Tantawi in a blog posting today.
The Islamic state issue has been a major source of conflict between the Islamist party and its partners in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact, particularly the DAP.
While PAS has been more widely accepted by non-Muslims over the years due to its more liberal and progressive stand, its leaders have often made it clear that the party has yet to abandon its intention to form an Islamic state, which DAP has vehemently rejected.
Nasrudin’s posting appeared on PAS organ, Harakah Daily’s website earlier today, but was removed later for reasons unknown.
When contacted, the youth leader said he was unaware of this.
He, however, insisted that he would stand by his statement, despite acknowledging that the Islamic state issue remains a sensitive matter between PR parties.
In his post, Nasrudin said there was no need for panic or phobia over the Islamic state concept and called for a fair, honest and rational assessment of it.
“After all, all this time, people have been forced to accept the bitterness, trauma and prolonged suffering under this manmade system of administration that is treasonous towards God the Creator,” he said.
Nasrudin was addressing the ongoing racially-charged spat spurred by a recent report in Utusan Malaysia on an alleged conspiracy between DAP and Christian leaders to wrest Putrajaya from Barisan Nasional (BN), usurp Islam as the religion of the federation and appoint a Christian prime minister.
He said that the issue was being exploited by those in power for the purpose of achieving their “divide and rule” agenda.
“Every time they hit a wall in trying to defend their power, the issue of race and religion is used as capital to formulate a divide and rule conspiracy.
“Newspapers and television will be fully exploited to fire up conflict and hostility between the different races.
“But as long as the government or the opposition continues to be locked in the shackles of such narrow understanding, the people will continue to suffer,” he said.
On this note, Nasrudin said PAS’s Islamic state agenda should be implemented.
“I believe this is the solution to achieve racial unity,” he said.
He said that governments should be founded on the basis of God’s teachings for the purpose of ensuring racial unity, adding that mankind, as God’s creation, are bound by his rules and regulations.
“All would agree that he who created the heaven, earth and all its contents is Allah. We, as inhabitants of his world, are subject to the rules and regulations as established by God the Creator.
“It is God who wants religion kept alive; lives protected; dignity preserved; property not pillaged; for our future generation not to suffer; justice upheld; affection fostered; friendships unbroken; that there is no coercion of religion; mutual respect; that there is security and peace; a responsible government with trustworthy leaders; harmony among citizens; stable politics; economic development; and a welfare state,” he said.
Nasrudin added that these regulations were set by God to ensure mankind’s survival on earth and should therefore form the foundation of any government administration.
“God created man with regulations that must be followed so that they do not perish … similar to how a vehicle factory produces cars with operation manuals so that users can use their products without damaging them.
“Users would not be able to use operation manuals from other companies as they would not be applicable,” he said.
They say in Persian: Shud pareeshaa(n) khwaab-e man az kasrat-e ta‘beerhaa (my dream got spoilt by so many interpretations), and it sums up the case of Islam very well. Maybe our ta‘beer of Islam is complicated while Islam is in fact quite philosophical i.e. very simple. Islam will be complicated when we will consider “interpretation of Sharee‘ah laws or Hadeeth or Fatwas or Personal laws or matters dealing with madrasas” as “religious” and matters like “Muslim educational institutions, or reservation for Muslims in educational institutions and jobs, or the need to address the community’s socioeconomic and educational uplift, or the political situation of the community, or the civil liberties, or the situation of Muslim women” as “non-religious”. And we will do so with utmost self-confidence and with no room for second-thoughts.
Islam is a ‘way of life’ – very simple. It sounds complicated because it is divorced from life. It gives a direction and greater sense to all that we do. Without it we will not be able to satisfactorily reason any higher purposes of our actions. It gives the complete answer. If I were to meet Charles Darwin I would ask him, “Thanks a lot for taking the pain of explaining to us where we have come from. Kindly tell us more about the origin of species and how the fittest survive. After having done the above, please do one more favour and tell us what are we supposed to do on this earth and what is our ultimate objective and destination – after having successfully evolved from all the named and unnamed species”. If, however, we settle down for an incomplete answer then the simplicity of Islam will elude us.
Islam guides the human beings in every aspect of life with its beautiful principles – without dividing it into the categories of “religious” and “non-religious” or Deeni and Dunyaawi. You divorce it from life and it will become extremely complicated. It will become difficult to understand and explain. Because it will not have a frame reference. It will lose the ground which is where it was supposed to be standing. When you keep it in suspended animation it will not be itself. It will certainly complicate the situation. When we hear a lecture dealing only with what is beneath the earth or above the heavens we are certainly going to say, “Islam is really complicated, my friend”.
Islam does not make the lawful unlawful and the unlawful lawful. It is between fisq (transgression) and rahbaaniyyah (monasticism). Islam is not about speeding when the signal is red. It is not about remaining stationary even when the signal is green. (For an assessment of the current situation we only need to ask a few people about the percentage of Halaal and Haraam in Islam and then analyze the answers.) This is what is meant by the ‘middlemostness’ (wasatiyyah), which is inherent to Islam. As soon as we utter ‘Islam’ it immediately implies wasatiyyah. This is the ‘bi-polarity’ of Islam which combines the East and the West (soul and body) – seamlessly. If, however, we do not combine the two despite believing in Oneness then Islam will certainly be complicated.
Islam and truth are one and the same thing. If instead of walking all the way to the truth we start urging the truth to follow our path it will not remain simple anymore. Because it will not remain truth anymore. An incomplete truth is anything but truth. Ek bhi harf ahtaanay ki nahee(n) gunjaa’ish! Truth has never been complicated. Our perception of Islam has, in fact, been partial and distorted. Truth is not easily recognized due to the conditioning effects of generations after generations. Hence, truth has become extremely “complicated” and highly “philosophical”.
Islam is a religion of common humanity. It is as simple for that humanity as air, light and water within everyone’s reach and satisfying everyone’s need in all walks of life (whether public or private). If it remained like that it was simple. But it has become a private affair. Becoming a private affair and a matter of personal preference, it has immediately become complicated. Now it is so complicated that we don’t know in which aspects of our life we can refer to this manual and in which situations there isn’t any need, in fact! In many a matters of life it is obviously non-applicable!! Being applicable at one time and non-applicable at another and a constant switching between the two is a sure recipe for making it complicated.
For commonsense to become common and for philosophy to become simple we will have to change our discourse. We will have to redefine the terminologies which we frequently use in a borrowed sense. We are not going to use new words for a change in the discourse. We are only going to assign new meanings to the already existing words. Or more correctly, to regain the lost meanings. If we do not do so, Islam will not become as simple as philosophy and as complicated as commonsense.
Enough already. The blood of Usama Bin Laden’s corpse had barely dried on the Abbottabad compound floor when the complaints about the raid began. By Sunday May 8, the whining had become a veritable Greek chorus.Currently, 20 states have introduced anti-Muslim legislation, with more pending. Some of our country’s lawmakers and politicians have made very bigoted inflammatory commentsabout Muslims and Islam. Very recently, Tennessee, under extreme pressure, rewrote a bill that would have made it a crime punishable by 15 years in prison for Muslims to worship together in groups of two or more. Organized groups are staging hate rallies against Muslims building houses of worship around the country. Local municipalities are playing the zoning game by zoning Islamic schools and mosques out of the community. Mosque playgrounds are being torched. Muslim family homes, property, and mosques are being vandalized. Children are being bullied and harassed because they are Muslim. Shockingly, last week the Editor of the Gainesville Times in Florida published a letter that called for the expulsion of all Muslims from America. Recently, several Muslim clerics, and also a young Muslim woman were pulled off airplanes for no other reason other than they were dressed in recognizable Muslim attire. This is all being seen through the modern technology’s “window into the wider world” that you mentioned in your speech, but like all windows, you can also look from the world outside and see what’s happening inside. What does it say to the world when our President speaks about rights for people in the Muslim world that “include free speech; the freedom of peaceful assembly; freedom of religion” when our own people are being hindered from building mosques, and schools, and our right to worship freely is even being threatened?
Mr. President, Muslims in America know that you do not stand with this kind of bigotry and hatred. During your announcement of the killing of Osama bin Laden you said,
SITUATION IN MALAYSIA TODAY
Islam is the religion of the Federation
Head of states or Rulers - all Muslim
Majority in the state –Muslim
The Malay status – person who professes the
religion of Islam
• The Head of executive- the Prime Minister and
Deputy
• The civil service – Chief Secretary, Majority critical
position in government
• Police, the army, judiciary and legislatures are
dominated and controlled by Muslims
• The Federal Constitution and State constitutions
embedded withy Islamic features
• The Islamic economic and religious institutions
supported by the state and the Federal
government
•Muftis, Majlis Agama Islam in states, Fatwa
Council.
•Administration of justice-The improvement
to the Shariah Court in terms of jurisdiction,
officers, salary scheme of the judges, Peguam
syarie.
• Powers of states to legislate in Islamic matters
(state List).
REBRANDING
• Is rebranding necessary?
Considering all above it is submitted that
efforts to rebrand Malaysia as an Islamic state
is unnecessary.
Coupled with wide and ascending acceptance
to the practices of Islam, it can be contended
that Malaysia as it stands today is already an
Islamic State.
CONCLUSION
• The status accorded to Islam and Islamic law in
Malaysia as we have it today is the result of the
experience undergone in legislative history.
• Islam unlike other religion in Malaysia has been
formally ascended by the Federal Constitution
with considerations however to the needs of
observing the social contract of the society
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