Well, what Dr M Bakri Musa stated in his recent column is long called for. He encouraged the usage of English in teaching Islamic studies as well as a more moderate or open approach when teaching the subject.
As someone who teaches Islamic studies in English at private colleges, I agree with most of his statements in that article. The problem I find when teaching the subject in English is the lack of understanding from Malay students who have studied the subject in Malay most of their academic life.
In regards to non-Muslims attending the subject, I did have a few students who found the subject interesting and thought-provoking and discovered Islam to be unlike what it had been stereotyped by the mainstream media.
However, the plus point of teaching the subject in English is that we get to point to various references written in English which are more broad and include many diverse fields within Islam such as philosophy, logic and history.
The students are open to discussions and get to see a side of Islam which is so lacking in the Islam that is understood by the Malays of Malaysia. Mind you, the Indonesian understanding of Islam is by far more advanced than the Islamic discourse in our own country.
Being a person who did his first degree and Masters in Islamic studies in the UK and not in the Arab world, it is very easy for me to teach Islamic studies in English while at the same time including discussions on history, anthropology, sociology and philosophy.
However, for many Islamic graduates from the Arab world, they face quite a challenge. The first is the language barrier as it is hard for them to translate from the Arabic to English and also to speak English.
Secondly, if they get past the first barrier, they then have to deal with the methodology or approach which is totally alien to those from Arab institutions. In those institutions, the study of Islam is more dogmatic and it is very rarely that they study Islam critically.
It is very rare that we find students graduating from these centres in the Middle East majoring in Islamic philosophy or logic. But very often we find them majoring in Hadith studies, Shari'ah (law) and Usuluddin (theology) shunning reason-based subjects such as Islamic philosophy and logic.
It is these scholars who take up important posts in the government and then define the discourse of Islam as we see it today in Malaysia.
Dr Bakri Musa's article had pointed out briefly some of the issues faced by the discourse of Islam in the world today. The government should open up the discourse instead of limiting it to within the confines of Shari'ah or Islamic law only.
But for the time being, I don't see this happening as most of the scholars who are around are taught only within this particular framework and have no intention of changing. Even the laudable International Islamic University is not open.
Over there, it is stated quite clearly that a person who teaches Islamic studies must be Ahlussunnah and not of any other denomination of the Islamic faith (i.e. Shii nor Ismaili whom Dr Bakri Musa seems to be positive about).
In addition to this, books on Shii, Ismaili etc. are controlled at the IIU and anyone who wishes to read or borrow them have to be interviewed beforehand.
With all this around, how is it possible to make Islamic studies more open and attractive as a scholarly pursuit for Muslims let alone non-Muslims?
Perhaps the silver lining in the cloud is the university's International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC) which has scholars from different denominations of Islam as well as non-Muslim scholars teaching diverse subjects and approaches.
Well, it seems that there is a lot to be done in order to break down the barriers surrounding the discourse on Islam in Malaysia to make the religion more tolerant and adaptable to present-day needs.
Probably the first step is to teach it in English. I second that.