How about Secular Islam?

Uzumaki Naruto

Some insist that Malaysia is an Islamic State while others say it is a Secular State. Perhaps from outside of the field some would tell off – ‘who cares’ and yet maybe some would opine – ‘I don’t know’ (no, not Pak Lah this time).

This is petty matter indeed. It is a resource-wasting issue that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. However, as petty it may seems, it gets enough attention from both sides. One may wonders how such paltry matter could have such political imperative that both sides are bogged down by it. Perhaps this may confirms the generally held knowledge about the significant mix of religion into politics.

When religion and politics are intertwined, there is a tendency that religion gets exploited as a pawn that underpins political logic to camouflage political objectives. In which, political organizations would produce discourses to legitimize their strategies and goals in order to garner support.

In addition to the above example, there’re also moves where a political party ‘Islamicizing’ mundane matters for example declaring a city as an ‘Islamic City’ or ‘Serambi Mekkah’ and also coining Islam into various terms with respect to the various political parties for the same reason. And make no mistake that the term ‘secular’ and ‘secularism’ (tabooed by religionist), exhilarate this mixed-up politicizing game of politics.

Nevertheless, it would be interesting to find out, what it is about ‘secular’ or ‘secularism’ that most Muslim scholars of present day frown upon.

For one thing, Muslims scholars over the time have soundly developed the constituents of the syaria and sets of religious disciplines. These originally were ideas/disciplines opinionated by Muslim jurists and scholars of the medieval period. These ideas have been repeated until today and over the time they have become so sacred and have been thought-out as divine in origin. As a result, any creative interpretation in view of change or reform would be marginalized and resisted by the authorized jurists (ulama), and this includes the idea of secularism.

Another point is that conservative religionists more than often would unwittingly associate secularism with atheism (Godlessness) – that gives out grimy aura to the term. Thus these rigid interpretations of both Islam and secularism are conceived as standing in opposition towards each other with antagonistic contradictions. This is the reason why conservative religionists would decry the inclination towards secularism in today’s modern world.

However, the irony of it all is, Muslims in general would agree to the fact that the Quran stresses the importance of knowledge and also promotes actions and reasoning. This idea itself is in a way similar in temperament with the idea of secularism which generally argues for reasons, rational, knowledge and action. In essence, both ideas are compatible.

Thus in view of that, intellectual synthesis between reason and faith is absolutely necessary. In other words, faith has to be in present values and should not mean blind imitation of past traditions.

This is mainly due to the fact that the way Islam was interpreted and understood by past Muslim scholars conformed to their own socio-cultural situation at that time. But human socio-culture is never static. Its state of affairs constantly evolves and changes through time. The human socio-culture of today demand more liberal disposition, tolerance and promotion of pluralism.

If the intellectual trend in interpretation of the religion were confined to conservative traditions of scholars of the past, it may create rigid hurdles for the ever changing, demanding and complex human socio-culture.

With religion mix into political equation; when there are other faith communities or other interpretations of the same faith that the state can become an instrument of religious oppression in the hands of the majority. Some religious issues might eventually affect the collective identity of the people and trigger religious sentiments that consequently turn into controversial political issues. Sooner than later, as religion becomes more assertive and religious zealots become more proficient at playing the system, constitutional guarantees may become futile.

Taking all that into consideration, adapting to a more liberal interpretation of secularism would be necessary. It shouldn’t be interpreted too rigidly as to equate it with atheism as many conservative religionists do. As well, the conservative interpretation of the religion from scholars of the past should not be binding on subsequent generations, as it may not conform to the changed socio-cultural situations.

On the plus side, secularism in a political sense would create social and political space for all religious communities. Most importantly, it would function as an effective device to protect religions from the corruption of politics and politics from becoming an instrument of oppression by zealots.

As a matter of fact, some scholars may argue that the idea of secularism have its roots from a historical context of Islam itself. Whereby, Islam in its early stage sparked the idea of religious tolerance, understanding and appreciation of diversity in human socio-culture 1400 years ago. This idea has ignited positive social order, ethical culture, intellectual discipline and spiritual concepts in their community. It brought forth torch of wisdom and rays of light and has transformed a once backward community to one of a world super power at that time.

Furthermore, the growing intellectual trends of understanding the Quran in a holistic manner would firmly suggest that Islam upholds pluralism, freedom of conscience and embrace diversity in its truest form. It does not clash with the idea of secularism and would assemble well in this complex human socio-culture of the modern world.

Now back to the trivial issue at hand; while at it let’s play along with this naming game on whether or not it is an Islamic State or a Secular State.

Perhaps the best solution to make everybody from both sides happy and to put to a halt on wasting time and resources, delving on such trifling matter in the future, is to go for the middle path. How about ‘Secular Islam’?

Let the nation be for all and religion for God. Woof out!

( This article can also be viewed at: Malaysia-Today.net)

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