COMMENT The news in Malaysiakini regarding the protest by Persatuan Ulama Malaysia (PUM) on the leader of Jaringan Islam Liberal (JIL) Indonesia, Ulil Abshar Abdalla’s participation in a roundtable discussion on Oct 18, is referred.

 

First, PUM might not have realised that Ulil Abshar will be in Kuala Lumpur from Oct 15 to take part as a speaker at the Third International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in Southeast Asia, organised by the Southeast Asian Human Rights Studies Network (SEAHRN) at the Swiss Garden Hotel, KL.

He is scheduled to talk at the plenary session on Oct 16 together with National University of Singapore fellow Melissa Crouch and Islamic Renaissance Front's (IRF) Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa on Religion and Human Rights in Southeast Asia.

 

And in conjuction with the visit of Ulil Abshar ( right ), the IRF has arranged for a roundtable discussion on 'Religious Fundamentalism Threat in this Century' on Saturday, Oct 18.

The main aim of the discussion is to explore the root of religious fundamentalism, especially Islam, its challenges in the modern world and our response to show how Islam can best come to terms with the challenges of modernity.

 

Why then, out of nowhere, was there a spinal reflex from these so-called ulama at the very moment the name Ulil Abshar surfaced in this country? Why is it that his ideas are so daunting and unnerving to these supposedly learned people?

Are they so scared to face-off with him in an intellectual arena and instead resorted to muscle-flexing in proposing the Islamic authority to take action against him? Will there be then any space left for intellectual freedom in this country?

Don't hide in a hole

 

We have to stress here that by invoking the age-old argument of protecting the Muslim community in Malaysia from confusion, they have instead exposed their inability to grasp the spirit of Islam and have only created a hole for them to hide into every time they are intellectually challenged.

We must also learn from history that the reason the Islamic world flourished during the earlier period was due to the emphasis on freedom of expression.

 

History has shown that the spirit of intellectual debate was well alive before, as summarised by al-Hashemi, a cousin of Caliph al-Ma’mun, during the reign of the People of Reason (Muktazilites) when he challenged his opponent:

 

"Bring forward all the arguments you wish, and say whatever you please and speak your mind freely.

"Now that you are safe and free to say whatever you please, appoint some arbitrator who will impartially judge between us, and lean only towards the truth and be free from the slyness of passion, and that the arbitrator shall be Reason, whereby God makes us responsible for our own rewards and punishments."

 

With this, we call upon the defenders of faith in this country to uphold the freedom of conscience and freedom of expression, to respect the right to dissent, to celebrate the diversity in opinion, and to put forward arguments based on wisdom and reason and not on volatile emotion.

Isma, Umno join in attacks on Islamic scholar

FAROUK MUSA is Islamic Renaissance Front director.