It’s the result, not the problem

Hence, while Europe was breaking away from church control, the Muslims were going the opposite direction. And there was no one to check the rise of Wahhabi Islam. In fact, the west supported them because they wanted access to the rich oilfields of Saudi Arabia. So the west is not just guilty of creating the Taliban but also of allowing Islamic extremism in the Middle East to flourish 100 years or so ago.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Any medical person can tell you that before the doctor can cure the disease, he or she must first know what it is that is ailing you. Understanding the problem is already halfway to solving it. So unless you know what the ‘problem’ with the Malays is, you are never going to find a solution to that problem.

I say this not as racial stereotyping. I am looking at things from a purely political aspect, in particular that which will affect the outcome of the coming general election, which will soon be upon us. Unless you know what makes Malays tick, it is going to be very difficult to garner their support. And considering that ‘Malay seats’ form quite a number of constituencies, it is very crucial that we know what is in the mind of the Malay if we want to win their hearts and minds.

I trust you have read my earlier piece, ‘So you think you know the voters’. Having lived in a kampung for 20 years in Kuala Terengganu, and having served as a Chairman of the local PTA (PIBG) in a primary school plus the Deputy Chairman in a secondary school, plus also Chairman of the local mosque as well as a surau during my stint in the East Coast, I pretty well can appreciate the mind of a Malay.

Malay children are sent for Qur’an recital classes at a very tender age even before they go to school to learn how to read, write and count. Hence before they can even spell or add they already know their Qur’anic verses and would have memorised quite a few of them, in particular the last chapter of the short verses of the Qur’an.

Now, most Malays do not speak Arabic. Hence they memorise these verses like a parrot without understanding the real meaning of what they are reciting. As they progress, the religious teacher or ustaz will explain to these kids what these verses mean. Hence also, their understanding of these verses will be limited to what has been explained to them by the ustaz, which most likely will be a very narrow interpretation and according to the ustaz’s own limited understanding of what the verses are supposed to mean.

Every Muslim kid knows about the Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon in Arafah. Some can even repeat this sermon by heart because they have committed it to memory.

Basically, the Prophet’s last sermon is about Muslims being brothers and that nationalism is forbidden in Islam. Some scholars even classify nationalism as assabbiyah and hence would be haram (forbidden). Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Father of Modern Turkey, is classified as an infidel for propagating nationalism and for separating religion from the state. Turkey is viewed as a very poor example of a Muslim country and the blame, they will tell you, goes to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the lackey of the West.

Malays are raised with this type of indoctrination. You must be Muslim first and everything else second. The Qur’an is God’s word that cannot be changed and there must be no compromise. The Sunnah (examples of the Prophet) and the Hadith (sayings of the Prophet) must be accepted alongside the Qur’an or else you will not be considered a Muslim.

Malays are not taught how to analyse or question. Malays are taught how to absorb and accept. To question is taboo. To disagree is fatal. Hence religion is based on total and absolute acceptance and even the smallest doubt regarding Islam would result in condemnation in the Afterlife.

I used the word ‘indoctrination’ above because this is basically what it is. The Malay mind has been programmed. And it is not easy to un-programme the mind of the Malay, even those who no longer live in Malaysia but live in one of the western countries. Did I not say: you can take the Malay out of the kampung but you can’t take the kampung out of the Malay?

To understand the Malay mind you need to look at Europe, say in the era of the 1700s and before that. The Europeans of the pre-1800s were no different from the Malays of today. But then something happened in Europe. What happened was that Napoleon Bonaparte conquered almost the whole of Europe and then he changed the entire education system.

In short, the Europeans were dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world. Before that, only the sons of the elite were allowed an education. The rakyat and girls were not given an education. And the schools were run by the church. So education was very much religious-based.

Napoleon abolished this system. He established public schools, which were open to anyone who wanted an education, even children of the masses or peasants. The powers of the church were curtailed. Europeans were taught that the Monarchs were not God’s representatives on earth. In fact, the Monarchy should be abolished in favour of a republic.

Once the Pandora’s box was opened it could never be closed again. Europe went through so many ‘mental’ revolutions -- plus an industrial revolution and many bloody revolutions as well. Nationalistic sentiments grew and eventually monarchic empires collapsed and were replaced by republics. Italy, Germany, etc., emerged from the ashes of the Holy Roman Empire and the Hapsburg Empire.

Empires not only collapsed but many new nations were born after the death of these empires. New countries were formed based on language and cultural differences.

Basically, nationalism (based on ethnicity) and language decided the new boundaries of Europe. Religion was reduced to a personal thing and no longer united Europe. And non-religious-based education was the catalyst.

This all happened about 160 years or so ago. Of course, there was also a downside to all this. Two world wars were fought not long after that because religious unity was replaced by nationalism. Hence people of the same religion but of different languages and cultures began to fight one another. But that is another issue altogether.

Muslims have not gone through this path. No doubt Mustafa Kemal Atatürk achieved that in Turkey. But if Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had become the Muslim world’s Napoleon and had conquered the whole of the Middle East -- and had introduced his reforms to the Middle East -- then maybe what we would see today would be an entirely different scenario.

Instead, the reverse happened. Around the time of the French Revolution, the Wahhabis were engaged in their own revolution in the Arabian Peninsular. Wahhabi Islam is a hard-line and uncompromising interpretation of Islam. However, it was not until more than 100 years later, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s, did Wahhabi Islam take root in the Arabian Peninsular.

Hence, while Europe was breaking away from church control, the Muslims were going the opposite direction. And there was no one to check the rise of Wahhabi Islam. In fact, the west supported them because they wanted access to the rich oilfields of Saudi Arabia. So the west is not just guilty of creating the Taliban but also of allowing Islamic extremism in the Middle East to flourish 100 years or so ago.

Now, around that same time, Malaysia was still a British colony -- then called Malaya. But the British more or less did not interfere in religion. It was left very much to the Malays to handle their own religious affairs. Many of the Muftis in Malaya then came from Saudi Arabia or Egypt. And many Malays were sent to Cairo and/or Medina for their religious education and returned to Malaya to become Muftis and religious teachers.

Hence religious education in Malaya was strongly influenced by the Wahhabi doctrine, very intolerant and uncompromising. And nationalism was shunned -- Turkey being quoted as an example of how bad nationalism can be and detrimental to Islam.

For that matter, even the International Islamic University (UIA) in Gombak was set up by Wahhabis from the US while ABIM has links to the Wahhabis (WAMY) and is financed by them as well. And of course Anwar Ibrahim was very much involved in all this back in those days when he was still very much an Islamist.

It took a few revolutions in the mid-1800s and an all-out European war in the early 1800s to help the Europeans break away from church domination. It is going to take nothing less than that to help the Muslims breakout as well.

Unfortunately, the Wahhabi Revolution of the early 1900s and the Iranian Revolution more than 50 years later went the other way. Instead of breaking out, they went deeper into Islam. And the recent elections in a few Middle Eastern countries have seen hard-line Islamic parties take power from the liberals.

The Malays can be considered pretty liberal by Islamic standards. But we must not make the mistake of sizing up the Malays according to how they lead their lives. What they do could be a great departure from what they think. They hold certain values although they may fail to live up to those values.

And this is why it is very difficult to understand the Malay mind because we would imagine that you would live your life according to what you believe and doing the opposite would make you a hypocrite. But the Malays do not see this as hypocrisy. For example, many gangsters who would not hesitate to murder their enemies are also very staunch Catholics and hold religion dear to their hearts. How do you reconcile this? The same goes for ‘bad’ Muslims who are also devout in their beliefs although lacking in their ways or adeen.

And that is why years ago I had already said that the Malay mind is a very complex creature and very difficult to comprehend. And I can appreciate why my fellow Malaysians get very confused and cannot understand why the Malays do not share the same ideals as those not of Malay origin.

It will require a major mental revolution before we are going to see this change. And this is what I have harping on the last eight years since I started Malaysia Today in 2004.