Friends,
Many say that we should be a moderate Muslim country as in the quotation below:
//Najib should interfere and commute the sentence to a simple fine and assuring the world that we are still a moderate Muslim country//
I don't think it's as simple as that. Islamic matters are the prerogative of the Sultan.
At any rate why be unduly concerned about our being known as a moderate Muslim country, a liberal one, or even a fundamentalist Muslim country for that matter? What do these labels mean from the point of view of Islam? As a Muslim, what value do these labels, moderate, liberal or fundamentalist, place on me? I say none.
The reason I say 'none' is that I'm a Muslim. Full stop. I may be a pious or a not-so-pious Muslim but these states do not equate to my being a moderate, liberal or fundamentalist Muslim. In fact, if people insist of using these labels, I'd say the best Muslim is a fundamentalist Muslim.
Tun himself once said that he's a fundamentalist. Now, before you go shouting 'Taliban' or 'As-Shabab' please remember that 'fundamental' means a leading or primary principle, rule, law, or article, which serves as the groundwork of a system -- in our case, Islam.
Moderate, liberal and fundamentalist are labels stuck on Islam and Muslims. In the history of Islam there were never 'moderate' or 'fundamentalist' Muslims until very recently. No history book has described the early Muslim community in Madinah or the various caliphates under the four Rightly Guided Caliphs, when Islamic fervour was at its greatest, as fundamentalist. There were good and bad Muslims, pious and impious, even secular and religious ones, yes, but no moderate or fundamentalist ones. As a matter of fact, 'Fundamentalism' was used to describe a Christian movement in the early 20th century, and 'Puritanism' even earlier. [I include Puritanism because now certain Muslim communities have been described as practicing 'puritan' Islam, whatever that means].
These are powerful words giving the connotation that being 'liberal' is good and being 'fundamentalist' bad. The danger is, when we buy into this labelling, when we accept it, we're obliged to fit into the mould of a moderate, liberal or fundamental Muslim, a mould which Muslims didn't make. We're allowing others to dictate to us what a Muslim should be. Shouldn't it be the other way round? Shouldn't we decide what we should be? And if we do decide what we should be, must we fit into boxes labelled 'moderate', liberal' or 'fundamental' -- boxes made by others?
When we accept these terms as being descriptive of Muslims, we in effect look at ourselves and Muslims everywhere through the lens of others. And therein lies the problem.
It's fine if a Muslim who says the Friday prayers regularly, for example, is called a 'moderate.' But what if he is labelled (pejoratively) as a 'fundamentalist,' [which is what he is, actually] and one who doesn't pray is called 'liberal' or 'moderate'? Does he give up his prayers in order to be accepted as a 'moderate'? What if others decide to call a Muslim lady, who is otherwise moderate in her manners, but who wears a scarf, a fundamentalist? Does she then remove her scarf in order to fit into others' perception of what a moderate Muslim should be? Does a Muslim who drinks alcohol and then decides to turn teetotaller without changing anything else in his life go up the scale from liberal to fundamentalist?
So I say let's practice Islam the best we can and judge ourselves using the yardstick used by Islam all this while -- the degree of piety, because Allah SWT certainly will. And ignore the labels attached to the religion by others. These labels change like the wind.
By prof_ridcully