Let’s be honest about Islam

Imagine, if you will, telling your child that the Internet should be used for learning. The internet can you give access to infinite knowledge, you tell them. They are in awe of your words but there is one huge problem – they see you using the net to look for porn. So while you are telling them what it is actually meant for, you yourself use it for other purposes. Do you think your children would be impressed by this contradiction between your words and behaviour?

The above analogy is indeed the problem with the problem of Jihadism, the end product of Islamofascism.

The Malaysian Insider reported that a father and son were sentenced to 18 and 12 years in prison respectively for planning terror from the Middle East to Malaysia. Murad Halimmuddin Hassan, 49, and Abu Daud Murad Halimmuddin, 25 had been planning to recruit twenty people to conduct acts of terrorism. They wanted to become Malaysia’s version of the so-called Islamic State.

This is not the first time this has happened. Back in 2002, the son of the late PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Nik Adli, was among some caught for starting a “Kumpulan Militan Malaysia”, another pretentious sounding group. These guys do not need the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as their inspiration.

So the question now is, how do we nip this problem in the bud? So far, we have not had any public acts of terror on the scale of 9/11 and 7/7 but rest assured, we are not far away from such levels of violence. The problem is, there is a cognitive dissonance between what we say and what we do.

This is not to say that any kind of Islamisation is bad. Islamisation is like any other kind of cultural accretion. People take on various modes of living like any other cultural trend. Their dress and speech change to suit the new culture. My family members now say “solat” after saying “sembahyang” all this while. It is simply a cultural shift. It does not make their sembahyang any holier.

However, the problem is that within this cultural matrix of Islam, there are elements which influence the Muslim towards Islamofascism.

A good example of this would be the beard. I grew up with the teaching from the religious functionaries that the beard was “sunat” (supererogatory) rather than “wajib” (obligatory). Now we can see growing opinions that in fact the beard is obligatory and that shaving is tantamount to effeminacy and homosexuality! Yes, such are the wonders of Islamic pseudoscience; This reflects the machismo and misogyny in the Arab world.

Can you see the difference though? The former view was a recommendation whereas the latter one is a tediously judgemental position. Soon proponents of the beards will want to legislate the beard and levy a fine on Muslim men who shave it off. It has already happened for Muslims who do not fast during Ramadan and in Kedah, Muslim men who miss Friday prayers consecutively. This is the point where a cultural practice becomes a fascist law. Islamisation becomes Islamofascism.

What we need to do? For a start, right-thinking government officials (who are those, right?) need to take a stand towards religious functionaries (the “kasta paderi”, as scholar Dr Kassim Ahmad calls them). At present, Umno-led government are clearly afraid of Islamofascists. Our prime minister actually delivered speeches praising the so-called Islamic state and denouncing what he called “human rights-ism”.

I do not believe these were his own words. These words echo the Islamofacistss own rhetoric. So what we the public need to do is to elect parties which do not brook any kind of religious elements. Make governance completely secular so the Islamofascists have no foot in the door. These guys are the type for whom, if you give them an inch, they will want the entire football field.

Once proper governance happens, if we have any kind of religious education at all, we need to deeply reform Islamic education. De-romanticise myths about the historical Islamic state. Currently, the caliphate is taught as some utopian empire whose exploitative imperialist activities were seen as noble. This is simply a lie told to bolster the Muslims’ tribal pride. In truth, the early caliphate was rife with conflict. Even among the four “rightly guided” caliphs, three of them were murdered! Not really a utopian start to the story.

So in fact that is what we need. We need to stop teaching children this imperialist version of Islam. Be honest in our appraisal of Islamic history.

Apart from that, we need to dismantle the instruments used to force people to obey religious functionaries.  We cannot have religious functionaries forcing their way into homes decrying “khalwat” and at the same time say we are moderate. Nor can we force people to pray or fast. These acts are not inherently violent but plant the seeds of fascism in the Muslim mind. Violence will and, in other parts of the Muslim world, has followed.

Today’s sentencing of the father and son terrorist pair is not the end of the conflict. It is simply one of the first signs of things to come. If we do not reform our approach towards Islamisation, there will be more of these terrorists emerging and one day, they may actually succeed. – July 2, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.