Saturday, March 21, 2015

Nigeria a model hudud-state?

by Azly Rahman





Will Kelantan have strategic alliances with the Boko Haram, one day? It was implied that Nigeria is practising good Islamic governance, but what is the message?

I suggest all of us debating the implementation of the hudud study the transcultural flow of ideas and we will see how fast Malaysia will turn into a Taliban-land. Don’t we have people well-versed in global politics and political philosophies in our country - to guide politicians to the path of modernisation with moderation, liberalism with inclusiveness and transcultural ethics?


Didn’t a Kelantanese leader praise the Malaysian Isis jihadists some time ago and will this become a reason to bulldoze even the rights of non-Muslims and ‘no-hudud-please’ Muslims alike? No - call it hudud or God’s law as you wish, but those implementing are human beings with motives we will never know - power corrupts, absolutely power will corrupt absolutely.

I don’t know, It is best to speak about the virtues of a secular-humanist state because we are all human beings making mistakes and in a system that will not tolerate human follies, a reign of terror will ensure... and why would the champions of the hudud from the major political camps wish to emulate Nigeria? Is this fervour a gift from PAS to the non-Muslims who voted for them in the last general election.

Each Muslim is different

All Muslims are not created equal these days; each one is a complex construction of the history, culture, and politics of Islam. Even of the metaphysics of Islam. Most importantly education and socialisation are the twin pillars of this idea of ‘to have or not to have hudud’ or ‘to what extent must the Sharia law govern the lives of Muslims’.

Is a Muslim educated in Yemen, Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or even Indonesia, or even Kelantan, created as equal as those educated in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, Singapore, or even in Johor?

Which Muslim educated in which country and state has the right to impose the ideas of Sharia law and hudud more than those in other places?

Will we see the emergence of Boko Haram Muslims in Malaysia?

Who has the right to say the ‘liberal Islam’ is less Islam than Boko Haram’s type of Islam? Why would Malays of the Islamic faith be kow-towing to the dictates of those other Malay-Muslim who not only are happy to be ignorant of Western foundational ideas but also think that because they are educated in Arab-speaking countries and louder in their chants for an Islamic state they have the right to speak about Islam and become guardians of the ‘morality of the ummah’?

What makes those calling for the implementation of a comprehensive Sharia, the hudud, en route to an ‘Islamic state’ think that all Muslims must also agree?

What makes them believe that these Malay-Muslims are not already fed-up and even nauseated by the urging for this or that type of ‘Islamic-ness’ which includes waging war on other races and religion in multicultural Malaysia - instead of waging peace and ensuring that Malaysia will not see the rise of Boko Haram’s type of Muslims?

Aren’t peace-loving Muslims in Malaysia more interested in having their children learn about diverse ideas to become world-wise citizens able to live is a complex and globalising world, rather than follow the urgings warning Muslims against ‘liberal ideas’ these Boko-Haram-inspired Muslims think only mean Western ideas that will turn human beings into lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders?

How obsessed with the libidinal and the sexual can these groups be?

Study the virtue of liberalism

Is that how much these Muslims understood what knowledge is about? Should we even care? Should progressive Muslims care when, in order to succeed in many ‘Western and infidel nations of liberal institutions of the advanced nations’ the foundational courses are all about ‘liberal ideas’?

Do you think these progressive Muslims are going to care about those ‘liberal-bashing’ Boko-Haram-inspired Muslims to discourage their children to even explore what ‘liberalism’ means?

And these ‘enemies of liberal ideas’ got their college/university degrees, did they not? Did they not learn about western and liberal ideas and pass their exams and at least learn a bit of good things about it?

This is a similar situation of the hypocrisy we see demonstrated in the case of those who oppose the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English.

Many are distinguished professors who wrote their dissertations in English yet they are intoxicated by a strange out-of-whack nationalistic sentimentality, chose to produce hypocritical and damaging statements denying especially the Malay-Muslim children and youth of the importance of exploring liberal ideas and other languages including the English language; the lingua franca many of the Boko-Haram-type of Muslims would call “language of the infidels/kaffirs”.

Who need these kinds of Muslims and their urging for an ‘Islamic state’ when the stench of hypocrisy has filled the Malaysian air - like the poisoning of the sky through the Kuala Lumpur haze?

Think about it - what actually is this hudud debate about? Who is benefitting from this? This is Malaysia’s talk of the town that everybody - non-Muslims as well - needs to be engaged in.

2 comments:

rpremkumar2u said...

When you write about these issues it would take some common sense to see how right you are. Still it would be prudent for the Federal government step in and make a stand and make no bones about it.

Anonymous said...

Tak lama masyarakat akan lebih focus pada isu-isu remeh.
Judging people more appearance and ritual performance rather than seeking knowledge and good ethics.

Give up aaa... I don't see Malaysia as a developed country in the near future. Where to go? Just berlakon la. Kat rumah no need to follow.

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