Wasatiyyah - Creating More Molehills From Religious Buzzwords

I received this in the Inbox a few days ago. Its just another one of those rambling treatieses written by yet another religious scholar (Nauzubillah). A total waste of time. 

So why do I bother with these articles? Well there is always some method to the madness. As a friend of mine said recently,  "we pick our battles carefully, we choose the battlefield and we pick our targets". 

This is a piece of writing by someone called Muhammad Haniff Hassan PhD, of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technical University in Singapore, a place that I am not unfamiliar with.  

Muhammad Haniff has expanded on Prof Muhammad Kamal Hassan's paper on wasatiyyah. 

Prof Kamal Hassan was the Rector of the UIA here for seven years from 1999 to 2006 (until the arrival of Najib Razak as the PM).  As how things go among the Malays who "depend-100%-on-the-gomen" his contract was not renewed and the Professor has been in low earth orbit since then.

It  is a long article. 
Muslims will have to plod through it. 
Non Muslims can get totally lost in this undergrowth. 
Perseverance folks.

I have truncated this a lot.  
Too long and not going anywhere.  
My comments are in blue.

Wasatiyyah as Explained by Prof. Muhammad Kamal Hassan: Justice, Excellence and Balance

March 5, 2014 by Muhammad Haniff Hassan
 

Synopsis

wasatiyyah or moderation in Islam an important research subject 

2 key objectives: 

(1) to correct the image of Islam that has been tarnished by extremism, and 

(2) to overcome the spread of extremism among the Muslims of the world. 

Prof. Kamal Hassan’s conceptualization on meaning of wasatiyyah

He speaks of justice, excellence, goodness and balance 

attributes of wasatiyyah translated rather simplistically as “moderation.”    

Introduction

Al-Qaradhawi Centre for Islamic Moderation established in Qatar in 2008 

research and promotion of moderation.. combating extremism.. promoting inter-faith / culture dialogue. 

My comments : Qardhawi a moderate?? Qardhawi is banned from entering Singapore, the US, UK and other countries. Qardhawi has said that suicide bombing is ok because the jihadis have no other means of striking at the enemy. 

And they named a Centre for Islamic Moderation after Qardhawi? They must be joking.

And the country that hosted Qardhawi was Qatar - the number one funder of religious fanatics including ISIS and Ikhwan Muslimin.  

Qatar is so linked to terrorist funding that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Bahrain enforced an embargo on Qatar  for exactly the same reason.  

Several countries have accused Qatar of supporting Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Gulf states have demanded that Qataris leave their countries and return home

 
So Muhammad Haniff Hassan PhD and Prof Kamal Hassan,  you have just lost your credibility by referring Qardhawi or Qatar.

In Malaysia, the Global Movement of Moderates introduced in 2010 by Najib Razak for promoting moderation at local and international level respectively.


 
My comments :  Mistake No. 2.  Najib a moderate?? You must be joking.  He sends Ikan Bakar to threaten and bully people. He teamed up with PAS to table the RUU355 which seeks the "30, 100, 100" punishment for religious offences.  

30 years jail, RM100,000 fine and 100 lashes of the rotan for religious offences? 
You call this moderation ??

The fellow he selected to run the Global Moderates is a former secretary general of PAS who corruptly received more than three million moolas from 1MDB which he used to build a bungalow house in Bangi.   

And according to the US DOJ, Najib is involved in the biggest case of kleptocratic thievery ever in the history of the world.

Quoting these people destroys your credibility totally. 
Pilihlah orang yang elok sikit. 
Unless you are applying for a job with Najib.

What does moderation / wasatiyyah really mean?

Prof. Kamal Hassan’s Research on Moderation

Prof. Kamal seeks to present a complete conceptualization of moderation.

Prof. Hassan explains the concept of moderation using a graphic representation
 

My comments : This is a cartoony type drawing, with bright colours, a house with a roof, romanised arabic words (taqwa, barakah, al falah etc) to impress simple Malay folk who are impressed by arabic sounding words. 

according to Prof. Hassan, moderation must be grounded on Quran and Sunnah 

My comments :  The torture is over folks. I have decided to erase the rest of the article and save you much  heartache.

I have some questions here for both Muhammad Haniff Hassan PhD and Prof Kamal Hassan. 

Do you believe and agree that  apostates should be killed? 

This is in the "shariah law.

Do not beat around the bush. 
Just answer yes or no.

If your answer is  'Yes apostates should be killed' then how the hell do you call yourself a moderate? 

Renouncing a cultural or ideological belief does not justify any type of punishment at all, least of all the death penalty. 

There is absolutely no punishment of any sort for apostasy stated  in the Quran. 

None whatsoever. 

The Quran is certainly a moderate documen.

If your answer is 'No apostates should NOT be killed' then what have you done in your capacity as "religious scholars, researchers and writers" to educate the Muslim intelligentsia, educate  the Muslim opinion leaders  and inform the confused Muslim ummah that apostates should NOT be killed? 

You have not done anything?

Because this is the single most important belief among the Muslims that has given birth to so much fanaticism, violence, destruction, death, poverty and stupidity.

All the fighting and confusion among Muslims in the world is caused by this one belief - that an apostate must be killed or punished.  

There is no way you can call yourself a moderate and also insist at the same time that  apostates should be killed. That is hypocrisy.  The non Muslims will also laugh at you. And look down upon you.

Finally, how can you call yourself a moderate or refer to the Malaysian gomen's Global Movement of Moderates when you have the 3,5,6 Laws hanging over every Muslim's head in Malaysia?

3,5,6  Laws means three years jail, RM5000 fine and six strokes of the rotan for "religious offences".  

These are the punisments under the Syariah Offences ordinances.

What religious offences? Not attending three Friday prayers in a row, writing books which the religious authorities do not like, asking questions which the religious authorities do not like to answer, saying anything about religion which the religious authorities do not like (like the recent article by Prof Shad Faruqi, the book by Zaid Ibrahim, the book by Syed Akbar Ali   etc etc).

How can there be credible religious academics or credible religious research in Malaysia  when the religious academics and the religious research are protected by the 3,5,6 Laws ?

For example how can you even be peer reviewed if any peer review that does not toe the line of the 3,5,6 Laws can get thrown in jail for three years, get fined RM5000 and/or given six strokes of the rotan?

So there is no need to write long articles about wasatiyyah or draw cartoon type diagrams to excite Nature's children. 

Just answer the simple basic questions first.  
If you cannot, then go back into low earth orbit.