Over the last few days, I have been writing the following notes on my Facebook page, concerning the Sharia law component of the hudud. These are made in between my lecture sessions on philosophy, politics, and education and I hope that they will interest readers in sharing with me their answers to these important questions of the day.

WHAT KIND OF GOD?

stoning one to death

cutting off one's hands

beheading

100 and more lashes

and the range of punishments

in broad daylight

aren’t all these images of barbarism?

does this not show the brutality of Islam?

I thought the God of the Muslims is merciful and gentle

is this really God’s law?

if so, what kind of god?

*and yes I have these questions as they have now come to me

in which I hope for gentle answers *

- ar

ON THE HUDUD

remember this ...

The Quran is not a juridistic or judicial text... it is a compendium of short notes and narratives on morality, on stories pointing to earlier texts contained in the Bible and the Torah... it does not contain suggestions for punishment or strict legal framework of laws... is it therefore a source of God’s law?

The sharia is a human construction, derived from centuries of controversies amongst scholars and schools of thought with the ultimate aim of providing identity to this new group of believers called ‘The Muslims’.

In the hudud, stoning to death is from the Jewish text and practice. So is the suggestion of a death penalty for apostates borrowed from early Christianity. Other forms of punishment, such as beheading, crucifixion, burning to death, all have their origin in early Babylonian times. To say that the hudud is derived from God’s law and cannot be questioned is not correct, signifying one’s unwillingness to read about the origin of Islamic law, let alone the origin of punishment.

This is what is ailing our society that do not read much on the geneaology of morals and the historicity of punishments. And when perspectives pointing to alternate truths are presented, a jihad against these ‘perspective givers’ are called upon.

Who says one cannot question hudud, Man-made laws misunderstood as law passed down directly from God? Because it is Man-made law, we therefore have those who see the hudud as barbaric, and those who see it as a framework of a good social control, however archaic. What is said as “god’s revelations” most often become a big mess of confusion when it comes to human beings, especially the priest class, try to put them down as law...

Thou shall not kill... but why stone one to death ?

Where did Man go wrong?

What is he not reading?

And worse, why must his priests insist there must be separate religious laws for the kings and the slaves? - ar

ALL MUST DISCUSS

No one is a real expert - even the clerics, the ‘erdogans’, the hard-core liberal-seculars and the little ayatollahs are disagreeing violently amongst themselves.

It is each citizen’s right to question any concern they have before things become law. One cannot be intimidated, silenced, threatened, jailed for asking questions dear to their democratic lives... that is what democracy and citizenship is all about - participation and dialogue.

It is the right of every citizen to gather freely and safely in a democracy to petition for the removal of governments and leaders that are lousy and only there to slowly kill society and humanity through taxation without representation, daylight robbery, and all kinds of thievery to support a lifestyle far-removed form the reality of poverty of the many.

On the hudud issue - To put a stop to dialogue is not democracy, it is demono-cracy... and we have seen many of these kinds of systems in countries calling themselves Islamic, especially. Would you folks, agree? - ar

LET KELANTAN HAVE ITS OWN LAW

as how Sharia is said to be

successful in Nigeria

it might work

it might not

but let it be only for the Kelantanese, shall it be?

the will of the people - who voted for a theocracy

For there is no compulsion in religion,

let alone in Islam, the Kelantanese version

For - why must religious interpretation be universalising

as if there is no spiritual difference

between you and me -

- ar

IN THE LONG RUN...

The implementation of hudud

the romanticising of an Islamic state

might be the best invitation

for Isis-like enthusiasts to fight easier than tooth and nail

for an easier jihad

for a perfect synergy

to set up a Taliban-like state...

right here in Malaysia

and what then next... ? - ar

*or - am I making strange connections here? *

to swallow hypocrisy with a gulp of little pride remaining

why don’t the promoters of hudud

and the propagandist of ultra-nationalism

work in synergy and in perfect harmony

with tears of repentance flowing in parliament buildings...

why not create a good enough sharia index

to measure how much the politicians and plunderers and robber-barons alike

have stolen from the people, how those political murders are to be gauged, how hideous and anti-Islamic those in power are spending adorning themselves, and how much the country is being brought down by those spewing religious rhetoric as well...

why not? why not? - ar

*and long live the wolves of wall street*

ALL TEXTS...

be they religious, philosophical, cultural, scientific

be they transmitted orally

or crafted through writing as literacy

are the work of Man

from the mind of men

from the imagination of Man

all religious are the work of the priest class

each a genealogy of morals, of myths, of implausibilities, of miracles

building on early stories of Man’s attempt to make sense of the word

of the creation of many gods

the opticon, the panopticon, the synopticon of Man’s delusions

and the struggle to consolidate those gods into One, into Many, into None

has it been proven otherwise that these are not of human creation

- would you agree with this proposition? - ar

DR AZLY RAHMAN, born in Singapore and grew up in Johor Baru, holds a Columbia University (New York City) doctorate in International Education Development and Masters degrees in four areas: Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He has taught more than 40 courses in six different departments and has written more than 350 analyses on Malaysia. His teaching experience in Malaysia and the United States spans over a wide range of subjects, from elementary to graduate education. He has edited and authored six books; Multiethnic Malaysia: Past, Present, Future (2009), Thesis on Cyberjaya: Hegemony and Utopianism in a Southeast Asian State (2012), The Allah Controversy and Other Essays on Malaysian Hypermodernity (2013), a first Malay publication Kalimah Allah Milik Siapa?: Renungan dan Nukilan Tentang Malaysia di Era Pancaroba (2014), and Controlled Chaos: Essays on Mahathirism, Multimedia Super Corridor and Malaysia’s ‘New Politics’ (forthcoming 2014). He currently resides in the United States where he teaches courses in Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Political Science, and American Studies. Twitter , blog .