By Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi

Muslim leaders, intellectuals and interested parties from around the world will gather for three days in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the main issues plaguing the Muslim world. The simple question of the congress is…why are Muslims so backward in everything from economics, science and even the question of morality…something Muslims think they are always concerned with if judged by the billion ringgit halal industry and moral punishments instituted. Not only are the Muslim world left far behind in almost everything, it is also isolating itself from the mainstream civilisational construct of just being a plain human being. It seems to be against many of the issues of equality and human rights that define the modern world. Is Islam better than the rest of the world in that it seems to hold a ‘higher’ form of both morality and rights of life? Will these questions even be asked? I do hope that this timely summit is not used as a blaming-other game like the Kongres Maruah Melayu but a time of deep self-reflection of the Muslims themselves. I do not need billions of ringgit in research grants to know that 90% of the problems facing the Muslim world is caused by none other than the Muslims themselves. In all great works of religion and spirituality, the message has always been the same…look into thyself and live with the world and not against it. A wise man once said: when you point a finger at someone, just remember, there are three more fingers pointing back at you. The Summit should take lessons from that simple truth.

First on the agenda for me is that the KL Summit should place the Ammam Message topmost as its priority. The Amman Message is one of the most important keys towards uniting Muslims of different sects and
mazhabs. Several years ago this understanding was signed in Amman, Jordan on the 9th of November 2004, so that Muslims will no longer call each other ‘deviant’ if they still pray five times a day and read the same Qur’an. Interpretations of history, juristic rulings and constructs of spirituality as well as morality must have a wide range of openness and mutual respect. The key is if such construct does not cause undue harm to others then interpretations of religious texts should be a testament to the humility of man as a servant of Allah and not that Man as the ultimate truth. History, spirituality and morality promises to be as varied as the contexts of cultures and many other factors. When the Amman Message was going to be discussed in a seminar in Malaysia recently, it was cancelled because of a dubious ‘bomb threat’ from a Facebook posting. Although a name of a person and of the group was clearly mentioned, the police seems to have no clues as to how to investigate. Since then there is no attempt at reviving the seminar. From these two aspects of the case, the lack of investigation and the lack of will to proceed, I suspect deep state operatives as the culprit and not a terrorist cell. The Amman message is the most important agenda because every week after Friday Prayers, the imam and
khatib would speak a
doa or a prayer to condemn Shi’as, Ahmadiah and a few other minority sects as deviant or
sesat. There is one problem there already for the Summit. Stop the Friday Sermons from saying this as each sect can exist in peaceful manner under the constitution of a democratic country like Malaysia.

Secondly, tell the KL Summit to stop Muslim countries from banning books considered ‘liberal’ or too progressive. The incident of the books ‘Breaking Silence’ by G25 and the Malay translation of Mustafa Akyol’s Islam Without Extremism’ are two cases in point. The main reasons given for the banning seems to be that the authors are not ‘ulama trained’. Excuse me, but I think that the narrow minded
ulama untrained in modern politics, anthropology, philosophy, science and technology are mostly to be blamed for pronouncing judgements that have set back the Muslim world hundreds of year. Muslims must allow a wide leeway for professionals trained in modern sciences and social sciences to present their perspectives on issues of Islam, democracy, human rights, equality, nation building and cosmology. The
madrasa-trained
ulama cannot do so and yet they are the ones vested with the greatest of political and economic powers.

Third on my agenda is for the Summit to discuss curbing the rights of Muftis to dabble in national politics by using such words as
musoh-musoh Islam,
pendatang and
kafir harbi. In Malaysia three muftis are notorious for interfering with national politics and social harmony. These clerics and officials unfortunately do not answer to a democratically elected government. They answer to ‘another authority’. It is this authority that needs to control the clerics and also put in place a more open minded official group that would see the world in a wider perspective. Before the 1980s, no one would pay much attention to whatever the muftis say but after the Islamic Reformation swept the Muslim world in the 80s and 90s, the so called educated middle class began to become more religious and suddenly more intolerant. Religion is supposed to be an element of self-emancipation against race and narrow nationalism but now it has become a divisive force.

Fourth and final in my agenda is education. The rise of Islamic schools as education providers is astounding alongside the rise in Islamic consciousness related to race and nationalism. Although this is good in the sense of propagating Islamic morality but it is bad when that morality impinges directly on the basic freedom and liberty of others. Islamic education, to my mind must inculcate three important pedagogical elements. First and foremost is the education construct that Islam is part of a civilisational search for universal goodness and spirituality as part of man’s age old efforts at questioning his existence. I call this as Islam in a Civilisational Construct. The Quranic Verses that ties Islam to previous Semitic religions must be emphasised and the ties of kinship and brotherhood between faiths must be affirmed. Muslims think that Islam is an isolated entity given birth by the Archangel Gabriel to Muhammad in the Hira Cave. Period. This create a dangerous isolationist construct of Muslims against the world and gives easy access to extremist ideologies. Secondly, Islamic education should teach about giving dignity to all beings as a fundamental act of faith. Muslims think that by virtue of their religion that they are all entitled to Heaven while others to Hell. The fact is that the Prophet Muhammad taught that no one knows this for sure and that the Qu’ran also teaches that only through the grace of Allah would one be included in Heaven. Thus, the fundamental teaching here is not to judge others simplistically and think that Muslims are above everyone. Thirdly, Islamic teaching must emphasise critical thinking. The main problem of religious education is its age old tradition of putting full faith in the teachers without question. It may be useful in the old days to do so as there is complete scarcity of knowledge source. But not so now. The scientific empirical method of questioning must be married with the teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah or tradition in order to make Islam a dynamic and progressive force of social and economic change.

In conclusion, the Prophet Muhammad once described Muslims as the easiest to make friends with and that Muslims are easiest to make friends with others. Looking at Malaysia and the world, that no longer seems to apply. Something is wrong and I, for one, do not think that it is the world. If the KL Summit were to be of any use and importance, it should be focusing on self-reflection much, much more than blaming others. Muslims have a unique chance of turning the tables for their advantage…by simply changing themselves.

(
Professor Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi
is Professor at a local university.)