(I hope someone will forward this Blog to the attention of HRH the Raja Muda of Perak Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Raja Nazrin Shah ibni Sultan Azlan Shah Muhibbuddin - because there are some points that may be of relevance to HRH the Raja Muda).
Yesterday I attended a Press Conference announcing the International Conference on Global Movement of Moderates which is going to be held in Kuala Lumpur on 17th - 19th January 2012.
Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak, in his capacity as Prime Minister, is the Patron for the Conference and will also deliver the keynote address to be titled "Global Movement of Moderates : The Way Forward". At the same time the Prime Minister will also launch the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation which shall determine the direction of this movement and its future activities.
The Press Conference yesterday was hosted by Tan Sri Razali Ismail (our former Ambasador to the UN as well as former President of the United Nations General Assembly). Tan Sri Razali Ismail is also the Advisor to this Conference. I hope Tan Sri Razali Ismail will continue to be involved with the new Foundation that is going to be set up. You will need a diplomat to handle this well. Do read on.
The Conference is going to be quite a grand affair. There will be 200 local participants, 450 international participants, 55 speakers and 12 moderators.
Among the eminent speakers who will be speaking at the conference will be
1. His Royal Highness the Raja Muda of Perak, Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Raja Nazrin Shah Ibni Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin
2. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad
3. Prof Tan Sri Dr Muhammad Kamal Hassan (President of the Int'l Islamic University)
4. the President of the Maldives
5. Dr Surin Pitsuwan (the Sec Gen of Asean)
6. Prof Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore
7. Dr Jusuf Kalla (former Vice President of Indonesia)
8. Prof S Jayakumar (former Deputy PM, Senior Minister and Foreign Minister of Singapore)
(Well among the list of international speakers is a "shaiky" guy from the UK representing some foundation named after the bulan puasa. The foundation is actually a one man show. Some of these folks do slip through - its an all expenses paid trip.)
The impetus behind this Conference was the Prime Minister's speech at the 65th session of the United Nations General Asembly in 2010 where the Prime Minister addressed the major religions in the world.
To quote yesterday's Press handout : "Y. Bhg Dato Sri Mohd Najib called for members and leaders of the world's major faiths to censure and reject their own extremists and jointly support a "movement of moderates".
(For further details you can visit the GMM2012 official website at www.gmm2012.org).
The major thrust of the PM's speech at the UN which has sparked this Global Movement of Moderates was his concern over religious extremism. In the preamble yesterday Tan Sri Razali Ismail and the other speakers spoke about :
i. going beyond just organising one conference
ii. we should develop a "program for the future"
iii. Malaysia must take the lead in this Global Movement of Moderates
iv. and 'Malaysia must explain' what it is to be moderate
So at question time I got up and as usual asked a controversial question, which did put Tan Sri Razali Ismail the Advisor to the Global Moderates Conference in a bit of a spot.
I raised the point that in Malaysia we still have Islamic religious laws enacted and implemented by the Federal Government in the Federal Territories (Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya) as well as by the various State Governments which can arrest, prosecute and then fine or jail people for having differing Islamic beliefs. I was referring to intra-religious intolerance among Muslims in Malaysia which is acquitted through legislation and State sponsored use of force (arresting people, jailing people and so on).
I mentioned the fatwas that are preiodically passed which have condemned various groups or people as 'deviating' from Islam. (For example against the Arqam, Tabligh, Tarekat, Shia, Ayah Pin and many others). People have been arrested under these religious laws and then jailed, fined or both. I mentioned the latest case where a group of Shiahs were arrested in Gombak recently by the Selangor Religious Authorities.
Religious extremism - which was the focus of the PM's speech at the UN and which also forms a large part of the raisson d'etre behind this Global Movement of Moderates - definitely does not pop up suddenly overnite, full blown and ready to explode, all by itself. Religious extremism is a long process.
Muslims become religiously intolerant and show hatred for one another's religious beliefs because such indoctrinations are embedded in them from very early on. And "intolerant" legislation (like the Islamic Religious Enactments that we have in Malaysia) certainly encourages this sort of religious extremism and intolerance.
We also have religious leaders who take extreme views on many matters. For example one Mufti is well known for his stand on many religious matters. One Mufti once made a claim that thousands of Muslims were being converted to Christianity. This statement from a religious leader caused much anxiety throughout the country and even endangered public order, leading the Police to interfere and handle the situation. I am not surprised that this Mufti is not a speaker at this Conference on the Global Movement of Moderates. (I hope HRH the Raja Muda of Perak will take note here).
My point yesterday was if Malaysia wanted to play a lead role in the Global Movement of Moderates our credibility would be seriously affected if we still have Islamic Religious Laws which arrest, prosecute and jail Muslims for their different religious beliefs. It would be a case of paying "lip service" only to this idea of "moderation".
If we want to show a good example (uswatan hasanah) Malaysia should lead trhe way and rescind these religious laws. We do not need these laws. Not all Muslim countries even have these type of laws, despite some of them having major sectarian differences among their Muslim populations. Then secondly we must make such laws unconstitutional - so that no one can re-enact them again anytime in the future.
The Quran demands that the Muslims should lead the way in being a moderate community (ummatan wasatan). Here is the Quran :
2:143 We thus made you a moderate community (ummatan wasatan), that you may serve as witnesses among the people, and the messenger serves as a witness among you. . . . . GOD is Compassionate towards the people, Most Merciful.
The sad thing or worrying thing is the Quran says "wakazaalika jaalnaa kum ummatan wasatan" which means 'And thus We made you a moderate community'. This community has already been made and established. But it is not the 'Islamic' community that we see around the world today. So it has to be someone else.
At yesterday's Press Conference, Tan Sri Razali Islamil also asked about the way forward. He said this Global Movement of Moderates Conference should not be a one time affair only.
My personal hope is that it will start the ball rolling for the creation of that still elusive creature : the moderate Muslim. Such a person does not yet exist (err . . I am talking about you too, dear Muslim readers).
The following two verses in the Quran do point the way forward for the Muslims:
4:136 O you who believe, you shall believe in GOD and His messenger, and the scripture He has revealed through His messenger, and the scripture He has revealed before that. Anyone who refuses to believe in GOD, and His malaikah, and His Books, and His messengers, and the Akhirat, has indeed strayed far astray.
According to this simple verse anyone who believes in
1. Allah
2. the Malaikah
3. the Scriptures
4. the Mesengers and
5. the Akhirat
is a believer. What if they do not believe? The next verse provides the answer :
4:137 Surely, those who believe, then disbelieve, then believe, then disbelieve, then plunge deeper into disbelief, GOD will not forgive them, nor will He guide them in any way.
Nothing at all is prescribed in this verse about what to do with people who believe, disbelieve, then believe, then disbelieve again and persist in disbelief. It is up to Allah to deal with them - He will not forgive them nor guide them.
So I hope this Global Movement of Moderates will pay heed to what the Quran says.
We shall endeavour to be an ummatan wassatan or moderate community. Part of being a moderate community is to learn to mind your own business. Dont go around measuring other peoples' faiths and then persecute them or prosecute them when their understanding of faith does not match your own.
What if it is you whose faith is not up to standard? Have you thought about that?
Finally I hope that the eminent local speakers at this Conference - particularly the Prime Minister or HRH the Raja Muda of Perak - will make a statement that the various religious enactments in our country which seek to arrest, prosecute and jail people over differences in understanding Islam will be rescinded and made unconstitutional. That will really get the ball rolling towards creating a moderate and non extremist society in Malaysia.
18 comments:
wah brother! salute laa ...
..before they champion the moderate movement, first,they have to solve the sectarian feud, legislating one (sect)as 'true' belief and branding others as 'deviant' will not help.
salam,
4:136 dgn jelas menerangkan 5 rukun iman.
tiada pun WAJIB percaya kpd Qadho dan Qodar sptmana yg telah difahami oleh sekelian umat islam hari ini.
mai mana taktau lagi 1 rukun iman yg ramai percaya konon ada 6 rukun.
ayat yg terang dan jelas sebegini ini pun gagal digarap dgn kemas oleh muslim, macamana nak jd umat islam yg sederhana?
sederhana = kembali membaca dan menghayati ajaran sebenar tuhan dan rasul yg terkandung dlm Q.
extreme krn keliru dan mencampur aduk ajaran sebenar tuhan dgn kefahaman palsu yg timbul drp sumber yg selain Quran.
ulamak2 yg perasan depa mewakili dan btanggungjawab menjaga aqidah umat islam harus ditegur berterusan.
perbuatan menghukum perbezaan pendapat dlm Islam (bg aku perbezaan spt pemikiran etc) haruslah dibuang jauh2. islam menganjur kita berfikir demi kebenaran.
spt hukum murtad yg kena bunuh yg tiada pun dlm Quran yg menjadi isu yg tak sudah sampai skrg kerana ayat tiada paksaan dlm agama gagal difahami oleh ulamak yg mangaku "houlier than thou".
tahniah ustad syed, hang mmmg best! teruskan usaha hang.
anon dik anon.
Syed,
Re. your last paragraph. It will not happen within my and my children's lifetime. Or until you become PM or Sultan. Worse, if PR become the government with PAS' posturing on people who don't vote for them.
me too salute lah........
zakaria
heard about this blog from lawyer friends for some time.. whoa, moderate yet brilliant.
To tackle extremism, you have to tackle the question of indoctrination.
Imagine,radical clerics/mullahs openly preaching hatred, jihad, bigotry etc, they exploit the ignorant, destroy young minds and cause social disorder.
i support this 'Global movement of moderates'
we truly live in a confused and unsafe world.
Consider this snapshot: one group of muslims preaching 'islam means peace'
and on the other side, you get reported news of suicide bombers targeting at shia followers.
If you juxtapose these two snapshots, everybody get confused, including the non-muslims.
allo syed,
-the faces as usual mostly are ex-politicians. can anyone eats the crap coming out from politician holes.
-politicians speak with forked tongues and would change their stance in a blink of an eye. the scientific communities should run some official experiments and test on them, people wanted to know whether they are really human beings or they may have been a sub species or related to chameleon and snake.
-all the wars, the killing, the raping and every other damn misery one could imagine that mankind have endured since time immemorial are happened by the bloody hands of the damned politicians. politicians of whatever ideologies are not alone on this crap, sleeping together in some cozy monster size beds are the sycophant bastards, the super rich elites, and the mental illness retards who never ever stop scheming to steal people wealth while having plenty of orgasms.
-muslims always become the target and fairly easy to scapegoat. being accused of religiously intolerant and religious extremist and such other crap but these crappy crap characteristics and temperaments also existed in other beliefs. christianity, judaism and hinduism all having the same fate and problem of being affected with the issues of intolerance and extremism. the americunts under the influence christian and jew zionism have killed millions of muslims. however only islam and muslims overall are under the spotlight because the so called islamic nations are basically weak, the people being indoctrinated with mumbo jumbo dogmas of over extended crap religious knowledge by the establishments, so much so they are scared of ghost rather than crocodiles or thinking twice before blowing other people up. islam has been hijacked by too many wicked duds internally for fame, power and money by the religious dudes, and by external elements with the sole purpose to divide the muslims and never to unite again. the western world had witnessed the might of united muslims a long time ago and since than their agendas is to prevent the muslims or muslim nations to unite and become powerful again by whatever means necessary. we can see it is happening now under the pretext of liberation and WMD.
an arab writer say that currently,the muslims are embroiled in the' battle of righteousness'.. which cause division.
if they can argue or debate the issue in civilized manner, it's okay but some choose to settle their differences in violent manner.
Di harap yang moderate ni tidak mempertahankan fahaman moderate dengan cara yang melampau...jadilah pulak pelampau moderate kan susah tu...itulah yang berlaku kepada golongan yang mempertahankan enakmen tadi bahawasanya mereka berfahaman sederhana tetapi memaksa oranglain berfahaman sederhana seperti mereka...
rudinamrom..
"Global Movement Of Moderates"
Syed,
Former Lord President Tun Mohamed Suffian Hashim repeatedly insisted in his foundational written texts that in Malaysia,
“The constitution” and nothing but the constitution is “the supreme law of the land.”
“Malaysia cannot afford to see constitutional principles imperilled, and constitutional processes jeopardised”
— “not even out of an understandable impatience, or a conscientious determination, to see the urgent political and practical problems of the day speedily resolved.”
Just to share this...
"All has gone awry. The idea of Malaysia was built upon goodwill and mutual trust among different communities spanning distinct racial groups with separate religious beliefs.
The 13 May 1969 racial riots remains a blot in the nation’s short history.
Rukun Negara disregarded
The Rukun Negara, issued on Aug 31, 1970, is a document considered by many to be an instrument required to unify the various communities of this country into one united nation.
It was intended as a complement to the Federal Constitution.
Its five principles formulated in relation to the constitution –
belief in God, loyalty to King and Country, upholding the constitution, rule of law, good behaviour and morality – are printed on the back cover of all Malaysian school exercise books.
It is hoped that these five principles would capture for all Malaysians, starting from young, in a readily-comprehensible form, the aspirations of all Malaysians with regard to their nation.
Belief in God is of course based on Article 3 and 11 of the Federal Constitution.
The East Malaysian experience has shown that the promises given at the time of Malaysia’s formation were and remain foundational to the writing of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.
The Article 11 guarantee of religious freedom, read together with Article 3, ought to protect and sustain the commitments made by the people of Malaysia."
This is an excerpt of book about religious liberty in Malaysia published by the NECF Malaysia Religious Liberty Commission and first appeared in Jubilee Malaysia website. David Fung is a Sabah based advocate and solicitor.
You be the judge.
Shalom.
Thanks flyer68.
The tune of our Negaraku is not different from the Indon song Terang Bulan. Our Rukun Negara too is not too far from the Indon Pancasila. Here it is:
1. Belief in the one and only God - Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa.
2. Just and civilized humanity - Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab.
3. The unity of Indonesia - Persatuan Indonesia
4. Democracy - Kerakyatan Yang Dipimpin oleh Hikmat Kebijaksanaan, Dalam Permusyawaratan dan Perwakilan
5. Social justice for all - Keadilan Sosial bagi seluruh Rakyat Indonesia
The Pancasila has not fully united Indonesia anymore than our Rukunegara. However both the Rukunegara and the Pancasila are mega powerful statements. Without carry trough, they become just words. Just like the Quran - if we dont read it and put its teachings into practise, then it becomes just words.
Among the reasons that the Rukunegara has not yet succeeded is because we have not curtailed religion. This is a major stumbling block towards national unity. While the Rukunegara projects positive values, religious beliefs have hijacked the agenda and persisted their negative values upon us.
Unforunately many people (the late Tun Sufian included) have an undersanding of religion not much different from say the Taliban - only the details differ a little. Yes there is a suicide bomber in most of us (you included). The right conditions, the right spark and it can be kaboom.
Compounding the problem in Malaysia are the presence of chauvinists and bigots (with their own political religions) who cannot even recite the Rukunegara.
It is going to take some doing. Join me bro :)
SAA
To God,All is ONE and any constitution with emphasis of a border and seperate races are the work of the devil.You think the devil is going to deceive us forever? The answer is NO for at this very moment the Mahdi is amongst us and so is Nabi Isa.Unlike politicians Tuhan's promise will always be fullfilled.The kithab is our ONLY refuge and do not waste time thinking for solution.The will of God will unfold.The will is singular and Absolute [InshaAllah]
"Global Movement Of Moderates"
Syed,
Thanks for your comments.
Yes indeed, it sure is going to take some doing...
With the the presence of chauvinists and bigots (with their own political religions) who cannot even recite the Rukunegara...
Well, they might say that it is not in the Quran, so we will all end up at square one again...
If your Ayahanda failed after 22 years, with the "Melayu delimma"...
How do you suppose we can better that ?
Shalom.
history is a good educator.
The answer is respect,.. respect for one another, the moment one suppresses the other belief or create rivalry by pitting one against the other in term of supremacy, it will create problem.
Sometimes, i think US is 'very islamic', it allows all religions(all branches) to practise as long as they dont preach violence.
When it come to self 'I' we often identify with the body [ a known object with a personality ] As indicated by the sentence I went to Bangkok.This is the mortal I that cannot know.Even when the brain generate thoughts what is it that register the thoughts [be it good or bad ]
Is there a thinker that choose to create or not to create thoughts.There is no voilation as thinking like digestion is an INvolutary functions like who beats our hearts.
Our five senses capture the various data base,but who is the knower [ie the seer,hearer,smeller,taster,and feeler]Who is this knower,including the thoughts that arises on its OWN as in I see,I hear,I smell,I taste.I feel,I know.The body is the pseudo I and there is no thinker [intellect] apart from thoughts.I have Full faith in the Real I [Anal Hak] and not the pretender.The great Al Hallaj is a moment of REALisation of the True Identity of "I" exclaimed "I" AM ALLAH. Nabi Musa was told by God I AM that I AM.
The Hindu too consider the Ego the devil and during Deepavali they smash coconut to symbolise Ego.And through the destruction of the pseudo self the essense is the light [Al Nur] as symbolise by the lighted lamp from coconut oil [essense] Mahdi like all other nabi have the appearence of human as All sentient and insentient are but the Manifestation of God.There cannot be anything out of Omnipresense.The kithab is the foundation and anything align to it deserve our believe,
In Taoism,the kithab is Tao Te Ching.Ching is the scripture,The Tao is the Truth and Te is virtue by conducting oneself according to the Tao[Truth]
I have often contemplate the 99 names of Allah and it spot light on the One Truth from All sides.
China have no ballot box and it is not doing too bad.
Tuan Syed,I admire the openess of your blog as we journey closer to GOD.I learn alot from your article especially your comments .
Ribuan Terima Kasih
jika tiada kekangan dlm isu ini dikhuatiri masalah dinegara Islam seperti Pakistan berlaku di Malaysia, satu pihak bom MASJID disatu pihak yang lain hanya disebabkn oleh "aku lebih Islam dari kelompok kamu"
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