Tag: Islam

Categories
Liberty Society

[1165] Of tale of two courts: common denominator

I am in the opinion that the trend of the strengthening role of religion in Malaysia reaches a new level after the civil court directed a Hindu to seek redress in the sharia court. For the past several months, the civil court has delegated many cases to the sharia court whereas the civil court should have deliberated on it instead. From a layperson’s point of view, this action increasingly widens the scope and the power of the sharia court over all Malaysians. This creates great controversies and indeed, it is another in a series of cases which test the boundary of the civil and sharia law.

This is a very worrying trend. Having the executive branch of the government enforcing religious rule in one thing, having the judiciary trading off civil liberties for religious conservative value is quite another. The judiciary is supposed to be the bulwark against the religious conservatives. When the bulwark starts to fail, the perfect analogy would be when the dykes of the Netherlands start to leak. The consequence of the leak needs no explanation.

In Malaysia right now, more than ever, we need a little boy to plug his little finger into a tiny hole, stopping the leak. This is because we as Malaysians have achieved so much since we last formed a federation in 1963. If the dyke fails, we have too much to lose.

As a libertarian, the legitimacy of the sharia court is only possible through the consent of individuals being judged by such court. I for instance only accept any sharia court ruling on me if I assent to be judged by the court — indeed by the sharia law — in the first place.

For certain reasons in this country, Muslims have two courts in this country; those courts are civil and sharia. While I have issues of being judged in the sharia court, the bigger issue is when there is an overlap between civil and sharia laws. In particular, this occurs when Muslims and non-Muslims’ interests collide.

When such event happens, in order to resolve the dispute as civil as possible, all sides will have to agree upon on whom should be the arbitrator. When there are more than one kind of courts and each side preferring one court or the other with such preference never coincides, there must be a common denominator that everybody could or must fall back to settle the original dispute. In the case of two courts, the common denominator is the civil court.

Why the civil court is the common denominator?

I like think the reason is the obvious. While the sharia law in Malaysia in theory governs certain aspects over Muslims (regardless of what I think), the civil law governs all. It is through this reasoning why the civil court is the common denominator. Again as a libertarian, this common denominator argument is valid to all, regardless of religious belief.

If we refuse to have a common denominator, to accept the civil law as the common denominator, perhaps it is better for us to quit trying to embrace each other, to live and let live, to live separately, peacefully.

Categories
Society

[1079] Of the Sunni-Shiite divide at Michigan

It is disheartening to see the Sunni-Shiite divide is occurring at a place where diversity is so highly cherished:

Last year, a Sunni student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor sent a screed against Ashura to the Muslim Student Association’s e-mail message list. The document had been taken off SunniPath.com, one of many Web sites of Islamic teachings that Shiite students said regularly spread hate disguised as religious scholarship.

Azmat Khan, a 21-year-old senior and political science major, said that she, like other Shiites on campus, was sometimes asked whether she was a real Muslim.

“To some extent, the minute you identify yourself as a Shiite, it outs you,” Ms. Khan said. “You feel marginalized.”

I was never active in the association while I was an undergraduate at Michigan. I have always been disinterested in religious activities since I was a teenager and so, the active inactivity is easily comprehensible. In fact, I think I became a member through sheer accident.

The only time when I could be seen at the Muslim Students’ Association-organized event was during Ramadan, when the association organized fast-breaking event at the Wedge Room of West Quad. And from time to time, when classes or World of Warcraft started to demand the usual time slot for Friday prayer up north, or the cold and the wind was simply absolutely intolerable, I chose to do my Friday prayer together with MSA-organized congregation at Kuenzel Room, Michigan Union.

Through my limited experience with the MSA, I do not remember hearing the divide as pronounced as reported by the NYT.

Categories
Liberty

[1053] Of Liberal Islam is not liberalism

I have a tingling suspicion that the school of Liberal Islam is not part of liberalism. Earlier, I have reasoned that while I am a liberal, I am not a member of Liberal Islam. This entry will further strengthen that assertion.

Forgive me but when I refer to liberalism, I really mean classical liberalism. Nowadays, the core concepts of liberalism have won the global ideological battle so greatly that almost everybody at least gives a lip service to liberalism in order to share the victor’s glory. Everybody loves winners and this includes Liberal Islam. Even religious conservatives through varying degree nominally accept certain aspect unique to or introduced by liberalism. Thus, I must qualify liberalism before I go on.

The problem with Liberal Islam is that, it does not hold the concept of liberty for the sake of liberty. Rather, it holds liberty — particularly civil liberty — because the school interprets the sources of Islam to allow as such. Whatever the conservative camps are saying, Liberal Islam still refers back to the sources of Islam. At the very least, it is the Koran. A real liberal does not embrace liberalism because “revealed knowledge” tells him or her to do so. A real liberal embraces liberalism simply for the sake of liberty through his or her own reasoning. A real liberal is not a slave that follows every order or commandment presented to him or her. A real liberal thinks for him or herself.

If it is true that Liberal Islam is not part of liberalism, why does Liberal Islam call itself Liberal Islam?

I would venture to say that the term “liberal” of Liberal Islam acts as a superlative. The term “liberal” in Liberal Islam simply describes the fact that Liberal Islam is more liberal in its interpretation of the sources of Islam compared to that of religious conservatives’. Nothing more. In comparison, the same reasoning is meaningless in liberalism; it should be meaningless simply because “revealed knowledge” is irrelevant.

It is no question that some of the tenets of Liberal Islam are similar to that of liberalism. Nevertheless, Liberal Islam does not go as far as liberalism in embracing liberty. And that liberty encompasses more than civil liberties. Free market is an important pillar in liberalism but Liberal Islam does not seem to stress too much of it.

The fact that term “liberal” in Liberal Islam is a superlative, a socialist could be a member of Liberal Islam. Socialism is affirmatively not part of liberalism. If socialism were liberalism, then the Cold War would not have made sense.

Categories
Society

[1009] Of Perlis: from Indera Kayangan to Darul Sunnah

I patrol Wikipedia rather religiously. I used to make countless edits on it but lately, I haven’t had much time to spend on it. Nevertheless, because of the frequency of my visits, it’s relatively easy for me to spot vandalism on pages that I maintain watch on. While most acts of vandalism are easy to catch, some aren’t. Sometimes, legitimate edits could be mistaken as vandalism. One of such edition concerns the page Perlis. On that page, it’s easy to find anonymous editors changing the noun Perlis Indera Kayangan to Perlis Darul Sunnah.

At first, I thought the switch was purely vandalism or some newbies were having fun on Wikipedia. Later however, the changes were becoming above average in frequency and more importantly, consistent. Given that, I toyed with the possibility of me being wrong and the anonymous editors being right. To ascertain it, I ran a little research on the net and surprisingly, I found countless hits containing “Perlis Darul Sunnah”. One of those hits is an article from Harakah:

KANGAR, 26 Sep (Hrkh) – Pesuruhjaya PAS Perlis, Ustaz Hashim Jasin menyeru agar gelaran Indera Kayangan bagi negeri Perlis ditukar kepada Darul Sunnah secara rasminya.

That roughly translates into:

KANGAR, 26 Sept (Hrkh) – Perlis PAS commissioner Ustaz Hashim Jasin urged to officially change Perlis’ title from Indera Kayangan to Darul Sunnah.

The Department of Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment also used Perlis Darul Sunnah instead of Perlis Indera Kayangan. The Department however isn’t consistent in its usage.

Indera Kayangan, by the way could be rendered to English as “land of dreams”. Dream as in when a person sleeps, the person dreams. As a person in the comment section has commeted and after consulting a dictionary, “land of gods” is the accurate intepretation.

Further search brought me to a forum which it’s stated that the Chief Minister of Perlis declared the name switch on July 2 2006. The forum might not be credible and so, handle this information with a healthy dose of skepticism.

What is wrong with Indera Kayangan anyway? Is it too unislamic?

If it is so, then I hope people of whom are making effort to change the state title realize that being a Muslim isn’t about being an Arab.

Categories
Education Society

[1006] Of a suggestion to increase the appeal of national schools

The Malaysian government is committed towards the national school system. From time to time, the current government reminds us of that; today, the Prime Minister reiterates his support for the system:

KUALA LUMPUR: National schools will become the schools of choice again, according to the Prime Minister.

Lamenting their decline yesterday, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said: “Everything is being done to make the schools attractive to all the races.”

Abdullah said the government had realised that national schools played an important role in nation building and bringing the various races together.

I have a suggestion, out of few, on how to make it a system of choice of many Malaysians.

Bring religion, in most cases Islam as far as national schools are concerned, to where to belong — as equal among many other courses.

When I was a students within the national school system, I loathe the very idea that religion was being forced upon me. I dislike that fact that because I’m a Muslim, I had to do things that are deemed as Islamic by my religious teachers. I’m sure some girls disagree to being forced to wear headscarf at school, just because they’re Muslims.

For me personally, the reason I attend school is to learn arts, humanities and sciences, not to have my personal life and belief dictated upon by strangers.

Further, I believe all the stress on Islam makes believers of other religions, atheists, agnostics and even Muslims that are uninterested in religious conservatives’ wet dream alike feel alienated. Surely, that doesn’t increase the appeal of national schools to many.