It is unfortunate that the Malaysian Muslim Scholars Association (PUM) has somehow given the public impression that it intends to use the coercive powers and organs of the state to stop some writers who attempt to discourse publicly some interpretations of Islamic teachings and practices of some Muslims.

First and foremost, it will project a negative image of Islam as a religion of coercion, not of persuasion, especially at this particular point in history. Whereas it is to the interest and advantage of Muslims themselves, whatever their political affiliations, to show that in the history of the expansion of their great faith, there were periods and instances where Islam was admired and accepted even by Europeans without any force being used or projected.

For example, almost all contemporary authorities on European history in the West speak well of the Islamic rule in Spain (El Andalus) for about 781 years until 1492, not only because non-Arabic cultures and non-Islamic religions including Judaism and Christianity were allowed to exist and flourish, but also because all religious practices and interpretations were encouraged to be discoursed by intellectuals and scholars without ethnic or religious distinction.

Without challenging each other's fundamental beliefs and core values, Jewish, Christian and Islamic scholars translated each other's discourses and opinions written in Arabic, Latin or Greek. They agreed and disagreed on the firmly shared belief in One God, but they continued to reason with each other without using force or threatening to use force. Islamic Spain is thus recorded in European history as a model of a tolerant and peaceful civilisation.

Genuine respect

Indeed, it was in Islamic Spain that most of the classical discourses on philosophy, ethics and mathematics of the Greco-Roman period were preserved from destruction by the book-burning barbarians who invaded and conquered the Roman Empire in the 5th century. Islamic Spain saved and preserved classical European civilisation.

In China, after the spread of Islam into the mainland in the 7th century during the Tang Dynasty, Islamic scholars and theologians, both Arabic and Chinese, began to reason with Confucians and Taoists on philosophy, culture, cosmogony, astronomy, medicine and other branches of knowledge. Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon Him) once enjoined Arabic Muslims to seek and acquire knowledge "even if they have to go to China".

Despite being a minority in ancient China, Muslims were respected by the Han majority for their grounded knowledge in the sciences as well as their patience, equanimity, self-discipline and cheerfulness. Genuine respect and recognition are earned, and cannot be induced or contrived by the use of forces or the threat of using coercive forces.

A second reason for PUM to refrain from attempting to use the coercive forces and organs of the state against the six writers stem from a self-evident fact that these forces and organs belong to all Malaysian citizens and taxpayers, including non-Muslims and Muslims who disagree with PUM. The coercive forces and organs of the state can only be used against genuine threats to national security.

Passionate elements

However, while the universal human right to free speech and expression must be defended at all costs, Malaysians must also understand that it is the social responsibility of everyone to exercise this right with wisdom and due respect to each other's religion, culture and belief system. Freedom of speech as an absolute human right should be balanced by the self-disciplined desire to enhance social peace.

Academics, lawyers and intellectuals who are well trained in the analytical methods of scientific analysis or rigorous debate must learn to appreciate the earthly reality that, while there are components of rational knowledge in every religion, culture and belief-system that can be debated and analysed, there are also the passionate elements that involve the security of the collective identity of the believers and followers.

The recognition of the existence of passionate elements in religious and cultural belief systems and the ontological need of every human being for the security of collective identity should not be simply dismissed as 'airy-fairy' as some self-styled but half-baked 'rationalists' or 'secularists' usually do.

For example, even the ultra-scientific and ultra-analytical military theorist, Karl von Clausewitz, could not proceed with his rigorous analyses of wars, battles, strategies and tactics without devoting a few chapters on the psychological (or what he called 'moral') factors in human beings as commanders or foot soldiers.

Thomas Hobbes, the British mathematician, political philosopher and one of the forerunners of modern secularism and enlightenment, also spoke on intangible and unquantifiable human sentiments such as honour, shame, fear, love, dignity and worthiness.

Working class empathy

Local intellectuals thus have to find the time to go out of the ivory towers, press rooms, courtrooms and post-modern offices in Kuala Lumpur to feel what the working classes and their families feel, their hopes and their fears and their moral aspirations. They should factor into their public discourses the elements of justice, compassion, prudence and respect for the less privileged majority.

Christian intellectuals and scholars, in particular, should use their knowledge to give hope, dignity and justice to the less privileged and oppressed people of all races and religions, and to empower them to strengthen their moral aspirations against moral corruption and politico-economic oppression.

They should assuage the mutual fear of the people by being themselves prudently fearless. True courage is founded on deep and stoic faith, not in vain, heated or emotional displays of academic knowledge.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia . Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.