Twisters in Islam

Those of us who have been suppressing our suspicions of PAS in our desperation to perceive it as an ally in our efforts to eventually write ‘The End’ to the long, sorry saga of Barisan Nasional’s domination of Malaysia, have been brought sharply back to our senses by two shocking plot twists.

The first was the resolution passed by the PAS mukatamar (general assembly) calling on the National Fatwa Council to ban the rights organisation known as Sisters in Islam (SIS).

According to a Malaysiakini report, the resolution also called for a study of SIS, which its opponents in PAS accused of promoting the kind of liberal thinking that is “confusing” to Muslims.

More confusing, to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, must have been the outcry that followed this assault on the Sisters, who I and many others have long seen as some of the lamentably few groups in the Islamic world calling for reason, compassion and the observance of fundamental human rights.

Even Dr Mahathir Mohamed, a man for whom I have as little respect as he customarily has for truth and justice, came out in defence of SIS, calling the PAS party resolution “draconian” and musing darkly that “we can imagine what a PAS government for Malaysia would be like”.

As indeed we can. Not that we have to tax our imaginations too hard, with plenty of Islamic governments around the world serving as stark examples of what PAS might have in mind for Malaysia.

The main trouble with Islamic regimes, it seems to me, is that they’re very bad news for most of their Muslim citizens. Highly confusing, too.

However confused PAS imagines Malaysians might be by the humanitarian message of SIS, it’s nothing to the confusion moderate Muslims in Iran are apparently feeling as they riot against the allegedly rigged re-election of the awful Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The good Muslim citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan must be deeply confused too, as they suffer and die as ‘colateral damage’in armed conflicts between their Islamic governments and ultra-Islamic crazies and criminals like the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Another source of deep confusion for the majority of Muslim citizens of Islamic or at least Muslim-dominant governments must be the ungodly degree of injustice and corruption that their ‘religious’ masters expect or force them to endure.

Travesty of justice

This brings us to the second twist to which PAS has recently subjected those of us who’ve been so stupid as to see its participation in Pakatan Rakyat as as sign of its straight-forward opposition to the crookedness of Umno/BN: the proposal by Abdul Hadi Awang and Mustafa Ali for PAS to join Umno in a “unity government”.

This, it seems to me, is not just a well-deserved reality-check to us idiots who had betrayed our instincts by self-interestedly starting to trust an Islamic party, but an insult to a great many Muslims.

It certainly offended PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, who thundered against Abdul Hadi and his supporters in the ‘unity government’ move, calling them boneka Umno or Umno stooges.

And so they are. But I wonder why Nik Aziz is objecting so strongly. Is he outraged on political grounds, or moral, or both? I hope he’s opposed to Umno on principle, as it’s high time more of the faithful, especially the faithful in positions of power and authority, stopped twisting the sacred tenets of Islam to suit their profane ambitions and immoral activities.

Admittedly Malaysia’s Umno/BN government doesn’t twist Islam quite so severely as Syria, Iran, the Taliban and so many others do in their justification of suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism.

But it shamelessly employs a sanctimoniously Muslim pose to commit or condone every other sin in the book. Even resorting to employing the Good Book, as Najib Abdul Razak did on swearing that he is innocent of any complicity in the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.

God only knows whether Najib swore truthfully or not. But even if he did, it’s obvious that he and many others from Umno/BN know far more about the murder than they’re prepared to admit, and that the whole handling of the crime has been, by the lights of Islam or any other creed, an absolute travesty of justice.

Just as it is in almost everything else is in Umno/BN’s version of Muslim if not Islamic Malaysia. You don’t have to be a religious scholar to know that the kind of official corruption and plunder that Umno/BN members and cronies systematically practise and routinely fail in their duty to prosecute are contrary to the teachings of Islam.

Or that police killings in custody and slaying of ‘suspects’ in spurious ‘shoot-outs’ are nothing but outright murder in the eyes of any God.

Or that bringing false charges like the repeated sodomy allegations against Anwar Ibrahim is totally unacceptable to any belief system calling itself a religion.

Or that saddling the ummah with repressive, self-serving and unconstitutional laws and corrupt, politically-biased civil services is utterly inconsistent with Islamic values.

Or that savagely exploiting fellow Muslims from Indonesia, Bangladesh and elsewhere as sweated, miserably-paid labour is morally and ethically evil.

So let’s not hear any more from hypocrites in PAS or any other ‘religious’ party about forming a ‘unity government’ or any other unholy alliance with the kind of Muslims that make Umno and all its works such a shame and disgrace to Malaysia.

And while we’re on the subject, let’s not have any more sexist, fascist fatwa by these twisters in Islam against good, honest and honourable organisations like Sisters in Islam.