PART 2 WHY MUSLIM INTELLECTUALS CANNOT SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS

 "they flare up, get angry and spill the blood of whoever confronts them with this question. They forbid rational speculation and strive to KILL their adversaries. This is why truth became silenced and concealed - Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al Razi, 9th century CE"

 

Yesterday I posted this :

 

In that post I said that not only ordinary Muslims are threatened with blasphemy laws but so are all Muslims intellectuals and scholars. All Muslim scholarship and Islamic "intellectual" thought is circumscribed by the prevailing blasphemy laws or apostasy laws in their respective community, society or country.

If you are a Salafi / Wahabi scholar in a Salafi / Wahabi country and you say something that is not agreeable to the ruling Salafi orthodoxy then you can get into trouble. You can be charged with a criminal offense. 

The same argument goes for Shia scholars living in Shia societies. If they 'step out of line' they can pay a heavy price. 

Yesterday I already quoted the example of the Egyptian researcher Zayd something who was taken to Court and legally declared an apostate obviously for holding views that were not agreeable with the orthodoxy in Egypt. (If you are wondering what happened to him after that well they also ruled that his marriage to his wife of many years was void because he was an apostate. He eventually left Egypt and lived in exile somewhere where he died in 2010).

Then yesterday I also received this poster from a friend (thank you bro). This is a quote by the famous 9th century Muslim philosopher and scientist Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al Razi (Latin name Rhazes) :

 

And for good measure another friend of mine (thank you bro) was able to confirm that indeed this quote is attributed to Al Razi. He found the same quote again at another website. Here it is:

 

 

Bear in mind that Muhammad ibn Zakariya al Razi said this in the 9th century CE ie 1,100 years ago.

It means that throughout their history - for 1,100 years or more - various Islamic societies have shown extreme intolerance towards their own co-religionists who may raise any questions about the 'soundness of their religion'.

al-Razi said that 'they flare up, get angry and spill the blood of whoever confronts them with this question. They forbid rational speculation and strive to KILL their adversaries. This is why truth became silenced and concealed.' 

So this type of hangman's rope has been constantly hanging over all Muslim intellectual thought and Islamic scholarship for over 1,100 years. 

You can only intellectualise, you can only seek scholarship, you can only undertake academic research within the very strict and narrow confines of your local definitions of what is blasphemy, apostasy, heresy, deviant behaviour etc. 

If your intellectual endeavour, your scholarship or your academic research steps outside these narrow confines that hangman's rope may well fall around your neck. 

So given this axe or hangman's rope hanging over your necks the next question that automatically pops up is just how robust is Muslim intellectual discourse when there is a constant fear of someone "flaring up, getting angry, spilling blood over any challenge or questioning of their beliefs or arguments"?

That is not scholarship. It certainly is NOT intellectual. It is just sectarian propaganda.

That is why the Muslims have been in the doldrums for a thousand years now.  Free discourse, discussion without fear of prosecution or persecution is just not possible. 

So how can a society even begin to generate the creativity that is needed and come up with the progress and modernisation to benefit its people when any thinking that is disagreeable to the orthodoxy can be punishable with death? It is just not going to happen.

So dear Muslim people, think. Are the Muslims (all of them - shia, sunni, salafi, sufi, ibadi etc etc)  still going to blunder along for the next 1000 years as well?

If you want to get out of the rut in which you are stuck you have to do THREE THINGS:

NO 1. You have to abolish all types of blasphemy and apostasy laws, rules, regulations that seek to prosecute or persecute views about religion that are different from your own sect.

NO 2. You must learn to tolerate and respect other sects and views on religion that are different from yours and you must force yourselves to live peacefully with each other.

There is already a good example here in the pilgrimage to Mecca. No Muslim of any sect is prevented from performing the pilgrimage to Mecca on account of their sect. Hence you see Shias, Sunnis, salafis, qadianis, ibadis and whatever sect all performing the pilgrimage together.  

During the pilgrimage in Mecca the Shias and Sunnis greet each other with Assalamualaikum, they pray beside each other and they perform all the pilgrimage rituals together. Shias and Sunnis also eat each others food and their men and women marry each other (which happens in Islamic countries). 

So it is proven for over 1,400 years that regardless of their sectarian differences Muslims can come together to perform the pilgrimage in Mecca. This is already a fait accompli.

This spirit of respect and togetherness has to be projected on a wider scale throughout all the Muslim sects around the world. 

NO. 3 Religion must be separated from politics and government.

The political parties are easily influenced by satan. They can be likened to Muslims Under the Influence of Satan. Political parties are after one thing only - to win the elections. Allowing political parties to manipulate religion is a huge mistake. 

Here the Indonesian model is much better because the Indonesians do not allow any political party from using Islam in their name or using any type of religious symbols. If Indonesia which has about 260+ million Muslims can do this, surely Malaysia with only about 17 million Muslims can do better.

And religion must be kept inside the hearts of the believers and inside their homes. This is where religion belongs. We do not need a government department to be in charge of religion.  You cannot 'departmentalise' religious affairs. 

And as I said before we already have good laws with good Islamic values. For example we follow the traffic lights at the road junctions. Red light we stop, green light we go. This is a good system. If you run the red light that is breaking the law and you can get fined and even jailed.

Is this system Islamic or not? Please answer honestly. Certainly yes. The traffic light system has good Islamic values because it guards the safety of the society, it makes us perform our obligations and travels efficiently and so many other good things. This system already has plenty Islamic values.

So is our building code. If there is an underground pipe more than a certain diameter lying under the soil you cannot build a building above it. The pipe and the building might collapse. If you insist on constructing the building there must be some engineering remedy done first. This is certainly an Islamic system. It ensures safety of the building, the people, the value of the property etc. The building code already has plenty Islamic values.

So you do not need a separate "Islamic government" or "separate religious department" to implement 'Islamic values' in the system. Just make good laws that are just and benefit the people. That will be Islamic as well.

We must separate religion from politics and from government.

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