The 'curse' that befell the Pharaoh is now on us

COMMENT The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) has barred Muslims from attending a roundtable discussion entitled 'The threat of religious fundamentalism in this century', which was to be held this Saturday.

 

The reason being that organisers chose to invite Ulil Abshar Abdalla, a controversial Indonesian liberal Islamic speaker, for the discussion.

 

The discussion was portrayed as a platform for Ulil Abshar to spread liberal thoughts on Islam.

 

Jakim went on a roll on the dangers of the Harvard University graduate’s ideologies.

 

Jakim director-general Othman Mustpaha said that Malaysia only follows the Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah (Sunni sect) and any other teachings that “might threaten and jeopardise the faith of Muslims in Malaysia” should be “halted” and “banned”.

 

"Jakim is of the view that this discussion will be used to spread ‘religious liberalism’ when Ulil Abshar himself has no authority to do so and this will only bring about a bad implication that causes public disturbance.

 

"The presence of such people in Malaysia will not only jeopardise Islam (in Malaysia) but can also affect the faith of Muslims in the country," Othman said.

 

Jakim lodged a complaint with the Home Ministry and on Sunday, the Home Ministry issued a ban on Ulil Abshar entering the country.

 

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was quoted by New Straits Times as saying that the scholar from Liberal Islam Network (JIL) would mislead Muslims in the country if he is allowed to spread his brand of liberalism here.

 

Meanwhile, Zulkifli Noordin, a former Perkasa leader, also lodged a police report. Apart from barring Ulil Abshar, he wanted the authorities to probe the organiser of the event, Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF).

 

The Karen Armstrong saga

 

The treatment meted out to Ulil Abshar is far worse than action against Karen Armstrong, a scholar whose books were banned by the Home Ministry a few years ago. 

 

Malaysia banned Armstrong's book on religious fundamentalism 'The Battle for God' even though she was widely known to be more sympathetic to Muslims.

 

As Daniel Pipes, a critique of radical Islam put it, Armstrong and John Esposito, another famous scholar, were among the West’s “leading apologists for radical Islam.”

 

Like the 'Battle for God', Esposito’s book 'What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam' was also banned in Malaysia on June 2006.

 

Around the same time, former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launched the Islam Hadhari (literally translated as 'civil Islam'), seen as a more progressive brand of Islam.

 

Following the ban of her book in Malaysia, Armstrong wrote a review in The Guardian newspaper on July 2007 stating, "... I arrived in Kuala Lumpur to find that the Malaysian government had banned three of my books as 'incompatible with peace and social harmony'.

 

"This was surprising because the government had invited me to Malaysia, and sponsored two of my public lectures.

 

"Their position was absurd, because it is impossible to exert this type of censorship in the electronic age."

 

The author, who also wrote ‘A History of God’ and ‘Muhammad: A biography of the prophet’ (two books that were also banned here in 2005), ridiculed the decision.

 

“In fact, my books seemed so popular in Malaysia that I found myself wondering if the veto was part of a Machiavellian plot to entice the public to read them."

 

However, this harsh decision was not just limited to Armstrong’s research on fundamentalism.

 

As far as I can recall, at least two other books on fundamentalism were banned as well even though the topic was amongst the most debated in the world.

 

Religious fundamentalism is not just limited to Islam and can be found in other faiths as well.

 

Armstrong’s 'The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam' chronicled fundamentalism behind these three major religions.

 

It should be of interest to researchers of Islamic movements like PAS, Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim).

 

In Malaysia, Umno, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Utusan Malaysia have waged war against fundamentalists since the late 1970’s.

 

Ironically, not long after Mahathir vacated the country’s top position, the religious bureaucracy morphed into a fundamentalist movement instead.

 

It was as though the government and religious bureaucracy suffered the "curse" which befell the Pharaoh.

 

Afraid that he might lose his throne to a child (who would later be known as the prophet Moses), the Egyptian king ordered for all male babies to be killed.

 

To his horror, the child that he found abandoned near the river, which he cared for in his palace and raised as his own son, was the one who was responsible for his downfall.

 

Even though, the metaphor used above does not exactly represent the situation at hand, but the curse of the Pharaoh still prevails when the nation’s leaders wholeheartedly oppose the fundamentalist threat only to lose out eventually.

 

If Abdullah ( left ) was at war against books that researched religious fundamentalism, now Najib Abdul Razak seems to be speaking about the dangers of pluralism and religious liberalism. It is as though our nation’s leaders seem to be preaching like members of the Tabligh movement.

 

If Mahathir was still in power, modernist intellectuals like Ulil Abshar would have been invited into the country to analyse how we approach and understand the religious fundamentalist movements.

 

As for one of Armstrong’s book ‘A History of God’, the 2005 ban was lifted three years later, following a demand made in awkward circumstances. 

 

When she was invited to deliver a speech in 2007 at an institute under the Foreign Ministry, a participant, during the question and answer session, urged the government to lift the ban.

 

The sharp words of the participant were applauded by all those present. It was an incident, which I am certain the then foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar and Mahathir have not forgotten.