Muslim proselytes in non-Muslim places bring opportunity, not threat

 

By Terence Netto

The suggestion by Terengganu mufti Sabri Haron that Muslim proselytes should enter non-Muslim places of worship to propagate Islam has stirred a flurry of controversy.

It should not.

Instead, the suggestion should be accepted as an opportunity for non-Muslims to raise queries they may have about the Islamic religion.

Non-Muslims fear owning up to these queries would expose them to accusations they are being rude, or worse, enemies of Islam.

Which is why when a Muslim cleric of the status of Sabri Haron suggests that Muslim proselytes should visit non-Muslim places of worship to propagate Islam, the suggestion should be accepted because it allows non-Muslims with reasonable queries to raise them for clarification.

Muslims have long declined to sit on the inter-faith councils, such as the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, because that would be an implicit recognition of parity with the non-Muslim religions.

Fair enough.

By logical equivalence Muslim proselytes won’t object if in the course of attempts to propagate their religion to non-Muslims at the latter’s places of worship, they are met with reasonable queries about Islam.

No serious believer in the non-Muslim religions would deny they have reasonable queries.

There is no better non-objectionable way to raise these queries than when the listener-host is talking to the visiting proselyte.

In the flurry of concern over the Terengganu mufti’s suggestion, there have been calls from some quarters that the government should protect non-Muslims from being put upon by Muslim proselytes wanting to propagate their religion at the former’s places of worship.

One does not think that Muslim proselytes would be so brazen as to go uninvited to non-Muslim places of worship to propagate their religion.

They would have to be invited.

And that presents an opportunity for non-Muslims to raise what queries they have.

A life without questions about the deepest questions of truth and belief is a life not worth living. - FMT

Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.