COMMENT The question of whether Malaysia is a secular or Islamic state was brought to the surface again when a Member of Parliament from Sarawak recently posed this question to the current Parliament session.

The written reply from the minister in charge of Islamic Affairs, Jamil Khir Baharom ( left ), created quite a stir when he highlighted that Malaysia is not a secular state.

So what is secularism?

The common understanding is that secularism separates religion from influencing or interfering in public life and from government. In a truly secular country, religion does not have any role to play in government, education, or other parts of public life.

By this definition alone, in practice, Malaysia is not a secular country as evident from the various ways religions, particularly Islam, influence the public space.

On the other hand, some constitutional experts and those in the legal fraternity argued that Malaysia is secular, as prescribed in the Federal Constitution, while others opined that Malaysia must strive to be secular to be moderate.

Then, there are such labels to Islam, ranging from “moderate” to “extremism”. All of these views and portrayals and theory versus practice create confusion to the public, in one way or another.    

It is interesting to note that despite being a model country for liberty and democracy and constitutionally “secular”, in practice, one can argue that the United States is not a secular country.

Religion has a significant role in the US

Religion plays a significant role in American’s modern day public life and religious values influence public policy, as is in the case of healthcare and birth control. This is not surprising, considering that approximately 80 percent of the Americans identify themselves with religions and more than 70 of them are Christians.  

Rashed Ghannouchi, a prominent thinker on Islam and one of Foreign Policy’s 2011 Top 100 Global Thinkers, highlighted that religious influence in the public domain is evident in the United States. For example, US leaders’ speeches are laden with religious content, and religion is debated in all electoral campaigns.

In Malaysia, the entire population can be identified by religion presumably, considering that the first pillar of Rukunegara requires Malaysian to believe in God (Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan). Thus, with higher percentage of population with religious beliefs, Malaysia is expected to have more religious influence in public life compared to the US.

In other words, if both Malaysia and US are secular countries, simple logic would deduce that Malaysia would be relatively less secular than the US if other factors are kept constant. Obviously, in reality, the situation is a lot more complicated.

Ghannouchi opined that secularism has evolved over time and suggested that secularism is a procedural solution to a society’s problems, and not a philosophy or theory of existence. This view is useful as we observe how secularism is interpreted and implemented in modern times and how it contradicts religion, Islam included.  

Recently, researchers at the George Washington University published an Economic Islamicity Index, with Ireland topping the chart. The index tracked how countries applied the lessons of the Qu’ran to societal life and looked at factors such as laws and governance, human and political rights, international relations, and economics.  

The top 10 countries are secular, Muslim minority countries including Denmark, Luxembourg, Sweden, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore, Finland, Norway and Belgium.

Not a single majority Muslim country made the top 25 and Saudi Arabia, perhaps surprisingly for many people as it is often quoted as Islamic country, only gained 93rd place in the rank. Malaysia is the highest Muslim-majority country in the rank, at 33rd place.

These findings, assuming that they are reasonably representative to the specific areas of study, suggest contradictions between what is defined and perceived as “Islamic”. Islamic countries appear less Islamic than secular countries, no matter how much anyone, the media in particular, wants to project the Islamic image of a particular country.

From this study, one can then argue that secularism, in practice, indirectly promotes Islamic values in such a way that can turn a country to an Islamic state!

This can be a skewed and contradictory conclusion to some, but this will certainly leave us thinking that there may be fewer contradictions between Islamic practices and modern day secular practices than one would have thought, at least for those countries in the top 10 and in the aspects the study considered.

We can then further argue that there is less for proponents of secularism to worry about an Islamic state, as much as Islamists should have less worry about secularism.

This may not be too surprising at all when one looks from the historical context, in that the secular concept is unique to the relations between Christianity and the governments in Europe, not Islam, as the concept originates in the 16th and 17th century Europe.

Throughout history, Islamic states, from the first establishment of the state of Madinah in the 7th century until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, have never been secular. The Prophet himself is a religious as well as a political leader.  

Thus, the concept of secularism is very peculiar and foreign to Islam and the Muslims, not until it was imposed very much later in the 20th century in Muslim countries. Secularism is so foreign to Islam that scholars struggled to find an equivalent word in Arabic.

What is religion?

We can then further examine what is the meaning of religion to human beings – to the Western people and to Muslims in particular.

What is religion? If it is only about rituals and prayers, moral values, what is right and what is wrong, what is allowed and what is prohibited, then Islam does not fit in this definition.

A Muslim’s worldview is guided by Islam, both in his relation to God and in his relations with fellow human beings and society. A Muslim sees Islam as a way of life, not in the context of religion as commonly understood in the West.

Islam encompasses all aspects of life, regardless of whether these are in the private life or in the public spheres. Interestingly, Islam offers a lot of flexibility and is not prescriptive in every aspect of life. This is a very important feature as it is time-tested.

Islam, due to its very nature, is practised in all aspects of life, private life as well as in government, for more than 1,000 years since the establishment of the state of Madinah in the 7th century until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.

Another time-tested feature is that in Islam, there are matters which are fixed/constants and there are those that vary. Fundamental matters generally are fixed and do not change, whereas variables, by definition, can change over time. Islam also recognises that individuals, families and societies, as well as the environment, have their own rights and place in this world.  

As such, in Islam, there is no dichotomy for a Muslim in conducting his private life and in his dealings with society and the government. Realities, though, can be different, considering the complexities of human nature and society. But Islamic values set norms for societies, recognising diversities and differences as well as realities.

If, in the secular West, religion is allowed to influence government and Islamic values are proven to benefit societies (as indicated in the Economic Islamicity Index), why can’t the same apply to Malaysia?

MOHAMMAD ABDUL HAMID is head of the Media Secretariat of the Wilayah Persekutuan branch of Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia.