To ponder upon further

Even in Britain the Shariah exists and there are almost 100 Shariah courts all over Britain -- and the laws are binding. And, mind you, Muslims make up only 3% of the 72 million population of the UK. Yet they have the Shariah and you do not see the British getting all excited like us Malaysians.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Well, we have had a very interesting fortnight of debate regarding the Islamic Shariah law of Hudud. The only setback, though, is that some readers do not understand what debate or discourse entails. And, for certain, ‘agree to disagree’ is not in these people’s vocabulary.

The Hudud debate (if we had had one) would have been able to open the eyes of Muslims (PAS leaders plus Muslims who propagate Hudud as compulsory since they are God’s laws) to the sentiments of Malaysians concerning this issue. However, since we did not have a debate as much as we saw an exercise in Islam-bashing, the whole thing became counter-productive.

Muslims, just like those of any other religion, would close ranks and defend Islam if they view Islam as under attack. That is natural human behaviour. And, in such a situation, emotions rather than reason would prevail. And, unfortunately, this is what we saw the last couple of weeks. It became a ‘them and us’ scenario.

People are certainly most passionate about their religion. And no one likes to be told that his or her religion sucks. And when Muslims are under the impression they are being told that their religion is barbaric, outdated, antiquated, evil, unjust, unfair, silly, stupid, unreasonable, and what have you, rest assured they would be forced to come to the fore in defense of Islam.

In a debate or discourse, facts need to be presented to win the argument. In the absence of facts, and when mudslinging and name-calling is used instead, then what we will see would be a barroom brawl. Basically, who can punch the hardest wins the fight.

Imagine if the reverse scenario had happened. Let us, for the sake of reinforcing my point in this article, look at a hypothetical situation. Say I start a debate on Christianity. And, say, I argue that there is no such thing as a religion called Christianity. Say I argue that Jesus was a Jew and died a Jew and his mission in life was to bring the Jews back to 'correct' Judaism. Say I argue that Christianity was an invention of deviant Jews who, more than a hundred years after the death of Jesus, introduced a so-called new religion, which Jesus was actually against, and falsely claimed that this was what Jesus taught.

I know, many would say that Christians are not like Muslims. Christians tolerate criticism and would never threaten to kill anyone who criticises Christianity. Is that so? There was a time when those who even mildly said something that the church did not like would be burned alive. Maybe, today, that no longer happens. But it did happen for almost 2,000 years and only now has this been a thing of the past --only the last 100 years or so.

When was slavery abolished? When were women allowed to vote? When did women begin to get equal pay with men? Yes, only very recently has the western world become really civilised (unless you see what they are doing in Iraq). It is not like the west was civilised all this while -- only over the last few years. Blacks were still not allowed into ‘whites only’ premises and could not sit in the ‘white section’ of buses till just a few years ago.

The ‘Christian World’ saw reforms after almost 2,000 years of bigotry because of the struggle of civil liberties and human rights movements. And it was the westerners (Christians) themselves who struggled to see these changes happen. Only when people of that community rise up will we see change.

Islam needs to see reforms as well. I will be the first to admit that. Unfortunately, we do not, yet, have the Muslim version of Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, or whatever. And we need someone like that, fast, especially in Malaysia.

We will only see changes when Muslims themselves lead this fight for change. Change will not come just because non-Malays or non-Muslims launch a fiesta to whack Islam. In fact, the reverse will happen. The more the non-Malays or non-Muslims whack Islam, the more the Malays-Muslims will close ranks and resist change.

The Muslims did not reform Christianity. The Muslims would have never been able to reform Christianity even if they wanted to. It was the Christians who reformed Christianity, as only they could.

Islam, today, is where Christianity was maybe 400 or 500 years ago. But that would make sense since there is a 500-year ‘gap’ between Christianity and Islam. So you need to give the Muslims time to ‘catch up’.

You need to be clear about one thing: the more the non-Muslims whack Islam, the longer it would take for the Muslims to be able to reform Islam. As long as Muslims view the situation as a ‘them and us’ situation, the harder it would be for the ‘liberal’ Muslims to convince the ‘conservative’ Muslims that reforms are necessary.

The non-Muslims should take a deep breath, sit back, and relax. Don’t get emotional. Don’t launch Islam-bashing campaigns. Trust the liberal Muslims. And rest assured there is a large enough minority of liberal Muslims (I said ‘large minority’, not ‘majority’). But, in time, this large minority would grow to a majority. With the Internet and cable TV and better education, in time the liberals would outgrow the conservatives.

How long will it take? 50 years? 100 years? 200 years? I don’t know. I am not clairvoyant. But, in time, it will happen. But the time will take longer if the Muslims are forced to close ranks to defend Islam from what they view as the ‘enemies of Islam’.

We need to remove the divide. And, for sure, in Malaysia, there is a wide divide between Malay-Muslims and non-Malays-non-Muslims. But the divide will only get wider if the current state of affairs continues.

Okay, so SOME Muslims want to see the Islamic Shariah laws of Hudud implemented in states that have a 97% Muslim population (which would mean only two of the states would be affected). So let the Muslims thrash this out amongst themselves and come to an agreement on the matter, if they can. The non-Muslims should not be arguing about this even more than the Muslims themselves.

Note that the whole of Malaysia already enforces the Islamic laws of the Shariah. The only Islamic laws of the Shariah not yet enforced are the criminal laws of Hudud. But the Shariah laws are imposed only on Muslims. Non-Muslims are not subjected to these laws.

Even in Britain the Shariah exists and there are almost 100 Shariah courts all over Britain -- and the laws are binding. And, mind you, Muslims make up only 3% of the 72 million population of the UK. Yet they have the Shariah and you do not see the British getting all excited like us Malaysians.

Okay, non-Muslims are also citizens of Malaysia and, therefore, have a right to express their views. Granted! So express your views then. But by calling Islam a barbaric, outdated, antiquated, evil, unjust, unfair, silly, stupid, unreasonable, etc., religion is not quiet ‘expressing your views’. This is just triggering a ‘them and us’ situation.

So, where do we go from here? Well, you tell me! I have opened up Malaysia Today to non-registered readers to give everyone a chance to express their views. Do you still think that this has been a productive exercise? Do you think this has brought us closer together or has the reverse happened -- we have driven the wedge deeper? You tell me.