“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.”

- Henry David Thoreau

Islam has always been problematic for me. In the old days, those who warned that the rise of Islam heralded a clash of cultural values accused me of being an amateur Arabist. These days those Muslims who find succour in the Umno state accuse me of being anti-Islam.

The amateur Arabist moniker persists. Unfortunately, any discussion on Islam is simplistically divided along those lines. In Malaysia, it is worse.

State-sanctioned Islam has created an atmosphere where any discussion on the way how Islam is practiced not conforming with the practices of the Umno state is met with charges of sedition or the rejoinders from outsourced thugs.

This is why the words of so-called deviant Wan Ji Wan Hussin, a political operative from PKR, should be welcomed and disseminated everywhere and translated in Malay so it could reach the target audience where it would do the most good.

I have always been sceptical of the opposition and downright scornful of the Umno establishment. While Umno during elections season attempts to bribe non-Muslims with goodies - and it is open season on non-Muslims when votes need not be counted - the religious politics of the opposition has been a mess of political opportunism and homages to political correctness. Neither approach is suitable for the long-term social and political stability of Malaysia.

Here are eight takeaway points from the Wan Ji Wan Hussin profile that rational Malaysians should pay attention to. Before I list them, I want to make it clear that that these points are my own interpretation of what Wan Ji Wan Hussin said, and he is free to disagree with them.

1. State-sanctioned Islam discourages independent thought.

This is why people like Wan Ji Wan Hussin are persecuted and the religious authorities are always on the lookout for “deviants”

2. State-sanctioned religious scholars propagate the narrative of the Umno state.

This is why the so-called religious scholars of Umno can make the most brazen attacks on the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims – of Malaysians – and get away with these actions under the guise of protecting the Muslim polity.

3. Religious departments “have successfully destroyed Islam”.

Not exactly. Religious departments have destroyed Muslims. If Muslims are fearful, ignorant and bigoted, it is because these so-called religious departments cultivate these traits in the Muslim polity.

4. State-sponsored religious scholars lie.

Over the years, state-sponsored religious scholars have manipulated, distorted and lied about the diversity of Islam with the agenda of supporting the narrative of Islam as promulgated by their pay masters is monolithic and myopic.

5. State-sponsored Islam is a tool to incite racial discord.

Wan Ji Wan Hussin uses the example of the touching of dogs but the reality is that state has cherry picked verses from the Quran to justify bigotry. Biro Tatanegara (BTN) courses, for example, use Islam to justify racial supremacy and engineer a siege mentality amongst Muslims.

6. An alternative [Muslim] view to Islam should be the only religion that can be propagated in this country.

My own thoughts on the matter which I detailed in another article:

“Now, Umno may fear this because if people had a choice between a religion that binds them to the dictates of the state (as it is practiced here in Malaysia) and a religion that allows them the freedom to reject dogma without the sanction of the state, which do you think would be the more appealing choice?

“Therefore, in a field of competing religions it would be beneficial for the issue of compulsion to be addressed so that the business of winning hearts and minds could go on unabated. May the best religion win, so to speak.

“Of course, if the state played no role in enforcing religion, nobody would feel compelled to leave it, but that is the tragedy of religion, all of it is the same but with different labels. The devil is in the details and without the civilising process, nobody - certainly not an ethnic group defined by their religion - gets to question which part of dogma to accept or reject.”

7. Secular governments “protect” all religions.

The only people who reject secular form of governance are those who would use religion as a toll of enslavement. The idea that people are not free to embrace and reject their faith is the foundation of totalitarian and fascists regimes.

As the young scholar points out, these are unfortunately the traits of Muslim countries.

8. Political Islam is untenable.

This is what I wrote four years ago:

“This fear culture perpetuated by Umno (and at times PAS) using Islam, manifests in many forms and its main aim has always been to separate the various ethnic groups in the hope of replaying the old Roman game (and perfected by the British) of divide and conquer.

“If we are to become an authentic Malaysian culture, we must be able to have open and honest discourse unclouded by the conflations bestowed upon us by the powers-that-be.

“If this fear culture is to be dismantled, the first place to start is the way how the state influences public discourse. It is an established practice when it comes to the discourse of human rights or any variety thereof; non-Muslims are constantly reminded that any issue concerning Islam remains the sole province of Muslims.

“This way the dissenting opinion (which is based on a religious or secular framework) is subservient to the notion that the non-Muslim concern is incompatible with Islam and therefore incompatible to the welfare of his fellow Malay Malaysian.”

Fate of the Malay polity

I do not subscribe to the “true Muslim” meme that most opposition supporters bestow on Muslims who think like them. In fact, I know that Muslims like Wan Ji Wan Hussin are in the minority. I hope they remain true to their religion as they see it and continue pushing the boundaries, especially here in Malaysia.

Ultimately, the fate of the Malay polity will depend not on politicians but on who frames the Islamic discourse. Umno mistakenly believes that it has a handle on the Islamic extremism that seeks to usurp traditional power structures. Nothing is further from the truth.

If Islamic extremism were halted in this country, it would be because of the efforts of people like Wan Ji Wan Hussin and not the jackboots of the Umno state.

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.