Liberal groups in Malaysia have been getting some serious media attention lately. Probably because they preach equality between all. It is to be noted that equality is not justice and vice versa is not necessarily true either. Liberal groups or liberals here refers to specifically to those who call themselves liberal Muslims and/or progressive Muslims.
They preach secularism as the best legal system for a multicultural and/or multi-religious society. Whether or not there are weaknesses to the secular method is immaterial to their logic. In case there were obvious flaws, these flaws would be swept under the carpet, or they would pretend as though nothing happened.
Recently in France a halal supermarket was forced to sell pork and alcohol in the spirit of Republic’s principles. The owner also faces the threat of eviction if he does comply. the French government very recently also banned the burkini (a swim suit that covers the entire body). We do not hear as much as a mumble on these issues from the liberals.
So much for secularism, well it does not stop there, in Singapore Muslim girls can’t wear hijab to school. Let’s imagine if all these things to be done in Malaysia, Buddhist and Hindu shop owners forced to sell beef. How would that settle in with the populace? How about the banning of alcohol in Muslim majority areas?
How would the people react? The very same people who remain silent in the oppression of Muslims would be the first to label this as “creeping Islamisation”, “Talibanisation”, “forced Islamisation”, etc. When the Road Transport Department asked a lady to cover up because she breached the dress code, all hell broke loose.
When Muslims wear the Jubah or the Robe, this was labeled as “Arabisation”. When the religious department confiscated the books by Irshad Manji, this was labeled as a denial to the freedom of speech. The liberals have a concept of religion that is unique. Unique in the sense that it is not based on the scholarship but rather what they want.
They want Islam to be what they see right and not what is right in essence. They preach freedom of religion for everyone but yet they can’t sit down when a Muslim wears a robe. They want to allow the shiites freedom to practice their religion here in Malaysia. Food for thought, whenever there are shiites going about their way in mainstream Muslim countries there is alway bloodshed.
Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Bahrain, etc. to name a few countries that let the shiites profess their religion. The freedom the practice a religion is one thing but to accept the consequences that might come requires one to be far sighted. Liberals also call on Muslims to accept LGBTs as a part of the community.
Accepting people as a part of community for their ideas and/or thoughts is different from accepting people for their acts. Progress is defined as accepting that the Islamic legal system i.e. Syariah is out of date and cannot be implemented, accepting the right for same sex marriages, albeit their views clearly contradicts the teachings of Islam.
What they expect is even more bizarre, they want the rest of the Muslim community to not only tolerate but accept their views. They allow deviation in text, practice, tradition and scholarship is merely a person’s own view regarding religion. As mentioned by scholars, Islam is via oral, action and creed.
To say what does not go against Islam, to practice Islam the way it was practiced by the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. and in the heart, the creed of Islam has to be firm. One is not a Muslim merely because his/her name has Arabic in it, but one is a Muslim when one believes and haves faith in God, His Angels, The Scriptures, The Prophets, the Day of Judgement and Predestination.
One has to wonder how those who call themselves Muslims are the first to spill Islamophobic comments. It is best that we stay on path mentioned by God in the Qur’an,
O ye who believe! Obey Allah and obey the messenger, and render not your actions vain.
Qur’an 47:33
Hopefully we are included in His blessings and His Guidance, in this world and the hereafter. This article was not to discuss the philosophical views of any ideology but merely to state what the liberals have been doing so far in the name of progressive values. Progressive, as though Islam was backwards by default.
Allah knows best.
Rehan Ahmad Bin Jamaluddin Ahmad
President, Intellectual Wisdom
