Mustafa Akyol: Faith versus tradition in Islam

Mustafa Akyol is the deputy editor of the Turkish Daily News. Mustafa Akyol talks about the way that some local cultural practices (such as wearing a headscarf or tudung) have become linked, in the popular mind, to the articles of faith of Islam. Has the world's general idea of the Islamic faith focused too much on tradition, and not enough on core beliefs?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

First of all, see the video here:

OR SEE VIDEO HERE: http://www.ted.com/talks/mustafa_akyol_faith_versus_tradition_in_islam.html?

Mustafa Akyol is Turkish. Turkey’s population is higher than that of Britain (72 million) and 70% of Turks live in urban areas with only 30% living in the rural areas. But there are many reasons why the Turks are more modern than Muslims of other countries, as explained by Mustafa Akyol in the talk above.

The reason I am writing this article today is to respond to what the MCA Chinese leaders have to say about PAS’s ‘dress code’. Actually, if you go to the Sultan of Selangor’s palace, you also have to observe a dress code and if you do not wish to comply with the dress code then you are at liberty to decline all invitations to the palace and boycott all palace functions -- if that so pleases these MCA Chinese.

But then these MCA Chinese people will even dress in monkey suits if they are ordered to do so just as long as they can go to the Sultan of Selangor’s palace to receive awards, medals or datukships. That is the hypocrisy of these MCA Chinese people. They will drop their pants and bend down if they can get datukships. Even Chinese gangsters and underworld bosses pay RM250,000 to get datukships and they don’t mind wearing suits andsongkoks to attend the palace functions.

Try walking into Selangor Club or the Lake Club dressed in shorts and sleeveless T-shirts and see what happens to you. In fact, even the National Press Club (NPC) has a dress code and those dressed in slippers, shorts and/or collarless T-shirts will be denied entry to the club premises (which happened to me and my guests a couple of times).

In Turkey, women are banned from wearing the tudung in the parliament building or on the grounds of the universities. They must remove their tudung as they enter the gate or else will be denied entry. This is of course the opposite of the ‘compulsory tudung rule’.

In short, whether you enter a club, university, palace, mosque, parliament or whatever, it is up to the building owner to decide on your dress code. In England, in some places they enforce the coat and tie rule -- even in some restaurants -- and if you are not dressed properly they will be very happy to lend you a coat and tie.

Try walking into Masjid Negara (the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur) dressed as above. And note that the National Mosque is NOT owned by PAS but by the government of Malaysia. You will certainly be denied entry.

Does MCA have a problem with this? Foreign tourists who visit the National Mosque do not complain and they are very happy to follow the dress code (or do not visit the National Mosque if they have a problem with the dress code).

Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa says that the non-Muslims are kurang ajar (insolent) and are questioning Islam. Maybe Ibrahim Ali should address this to MCA. The non-Muslims in Pakatan Rakyat are not complaining. It is the MCA Chinese who are members of Barisan Nasional who are.

The MCA Chinese are those who are the real kafir kurang ajar whom Ibrahim Ali is talking about.

Anyway, PAS did not impose the tudung ruling on the non-Muslim women attending their annual assembly. So the issue is a non-starter. It is just that the MCA leaders are trying to mislead the nation and are pretending that PAS imposed this when actually it did not.

That is the real issue here. So, as Mustafa Akyol said in the video above, we must understand what is Islam and what is tradition. Some Muslims are confused between the two. And some non-Muslims whack Islam also because of their misunderstanding about what is Islam, what is dress code, and what is tradition and culture (which may not be Islam at all).