The likes of Ariff damaging to Islam
I refer to the letter by Ariff Yusof, Do not toy with Islam
. This letter is a perfect example of the problem facing anyone who seeks to participate in intellectual discourse on Islam.Why does Ariff threaten Tai Loh Chin and malaysiakini about "playing around with our religion" and offending many who are "seething with anger"? (Gosh, are the followers of this religion of peace really like that so easily "seething with anger"?) Why does he not refute Tai's and Dr Farish A Noor's wrong interpretations of jihad instead of merely alluding to their superficiality in understanding ?
Why must Tai "bare his credentials"? If he is ignorant or misled, it should be a simple matter to point that out. And what's this nonsense about Tai's agenda ? Every word we speak or write and every action we commit has a purpose, a motive. And unconscious motives, too, for that matter. That's life. So let's focus on the debate instead of alluding sinister motives to the debater that will take us nowhere nearer the truth.
As a non-Muslim who happens to have (very superficially) studied a bit of Islamic history at a local university, I am quite amazed at the amount of philosophical debate and intellectual tolerance present in Islam for most of its history.
Until and unless Islamic society revives such debate and tolerance within its circles and engages in dialogue with other spiritual streams, we will keep hearing the constant lament of Muslim leaders everywhere about "needing to put aside our differences and forging a common brotherhood so that we can catch up with the rest of the world". If you are not tolerant of a non-Muslim's point of view, you will be just as intolerant of another Muslim who differs from yours. You are either intellectually tolerant or intolerant it's a frame of mind, a habit. And intolerance is anathema to brotherhood.
The level of intolerance shown by Ariff's letter, multiplied thousands (millions?) of times each day in Islamic communities across the world, is one of the main reasons why global Muslim society will keep lagging behind the Secular West, the Confusionist-Taoist East and, in the IT age, the Hindu East, too. In short, just about every major present-day civilisation.
Of course, the above paragraph could be looked at in two ways:
a) a simplistic generalisation that deserves a good intellectual thrashing; or
b) an insult to present-day Islamic civilisation (and hence to Islam) that deserves the imprisonment of the writer and a shutdown of malaysiakini .
The choice of perspective is yours.
Let me continue by saying that I find Islam a beautiful religion. It is simple, it is non-hierarchical and it stands for social justice like no other religion I know. Will I therefore become a Muslim especially now that I have left my religion of birth and have yet to pick another? No. Reason? The likes of Ariff who display a level of intolerance I have never witnessed in Hindus or Buddhists or Christians.
Unless more Muslims support intellectual discourse through their words and actions, Islam will always remain an unattractive religion to the outsider, a religion which time has passed. Unless Muslims actively engage in dialogue and debate, future Muslim leaders will keep lamenting the lack of creativity, progress and brotherhood in Islamic society. And unless more Muslims realise that intolerance is violence, that Ariff Yusof in his intolerance has done more harm to this Religion of Peace than Tai and Farish put together, Islam will never live up to its promise.
I urge my fellow non-Muslims to not let the Ariffs of this world stop us. We need to keep engaging our Muslim brothers and sisters in rigorous debate as much as in caring dialogue. We need to show them that our oftentimes clumsy words are but humankind's quest for truth, even if that quest is not immediately obvious.
Yes, let not the Ariffs of this world stop us because in the quest for the perennial philosophy, the eternal truth, we need our Muslim brothers and sisters. As much as they need us.
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I refer to the letter by Ariff Yusof, Do not toy with Islam
. This letter is a perfect example of the problem facing anyone who seeks to participate in intellectual discourse on Islam.Why does Ariff threaten Tai Loh Chin and malaysiakini about "playing around with our religion" and offending many who are "seething with anger"? (Gosh, are the followers of this religion of peace really like that so easily "seething with anger"?) Why does he not refute Tai's and Dr Farish A Noor's wrong interpretations of jihad instead of merely alluding to their superficiality in understanding ?
Why must Tai "bare his credentials"? If he is ignorant or misled, it should be a simple matter to point that out. And what's this nonsense about Tai's agenda ? Every word we speak or write and every action we commit has a purpose, a motive. And unconscious motives, too, for that matter. That's life. So let's focus on the debate instead of alluding sinister motives to the debater that will take us nowhere nearer the truth.
As a non-Muslim who happens to have (very superficially) studied a bit of Islamic history at a local university, I am quite amazed at the amount of philosophical debate and intellectual tolerance present in Islam for most of its history.
Until and unless Islamic society revives such debate and tolerance within its circles and engages in dialogue with other spiritual streams, we will keep hearing the constant lament of Muslim leaders everywhere about "needing to put aside our differences and forging a common brotherhood so that we can catch up with the rest of the world". If you are not tolerant of a non-Muslim's point of view, you will be just as intolerant of another Muslim who differs from yours. You are either intellectually tolerant or intolerant it's a frame of mind, a habit. And intolerance is anathema to brotherhood.
The level of intolerance shown by Ariff's letter, multiplied thousands (millions?) of times each day in Islamic communities across the world, is one of the main reasons why global Muslim society will keep lagging behind the Secular West, the Confusionist-Taoist East and, in the IT age, the Hindu East, too. In short, just about every major present-day civilisation.
Of course, the above paragraph could be looked at in two ways:
a) a simplistic generalisation that deserves a good intellectual thrashing; or
b) an insult to present-day Islamic civilisation (and hence to Islam) that deserves the imprisonment of the writer and a shutdown of malaysiakini .
The choice of perspective is yours.
Let me continue by saying that I find Islam a beautiful religion. It is simple, it is non-hierarchical and it stands for social justice like no other religion I know. Will I therefore become a Muslim especially now that I have left my religion of birth and have yet to pick another? No. Reason? The likes of Ariff who display a level of intolerance I have never witnessed in Hindus or Buddhists or Christians.
Unless more Muslims support intellectual discourse through their words and actions, Islam will always remain an unattractive religion to the outsider, a religion which time has passed. Unless Muslims actively engage in dialogue and debate, future Muslim leaders will keep lamenting the lack of creativity, progress and brotherhood in Islamic society. And unless more Muslims realise that intolerance is violence, that Ariff Yusof in his intolerance has done more harm to this Religion of Peace than Tai and Farish put together, Islam will never live up to its promise.
I urge my fellow non-Muslims to not let the Ariffs of this world stop us. We need to keep engaging our Muslim brothers and sisters in rigorous debate as much as in caring dialogue. We need to show them that our oftentimes clumsy words are but humankind's quest for truth, even if that quest is not immediately obvious.
Yes, let not the Ariffs of this world stop us because in the quest for the perennial philosophy, the eternal truth, we need our Muslim brothers and sisters. As much as they need us.
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