The Islamists' Perversion Of Our Great Faith

The Islamists’ Perversion Of Our Great Faith 

M. Bakri Musa 

Excerpt #23:  from my Qur’an, Hadith, And Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking

 

Sept 21, 2023

Those earlier ulama’s nationalistic zeal notwithstanding, it was leaders like the British-trained Tengku Abdul Rahman and Razak Hussein who successfully led Malaysia’s independence. The pair exposed colonialism for what it was, a stain on as well as a reflection of the hollowness of British humanistic ideals. Thus, Malaysia achieved her independence through negotiations and without shedding any blood, an achievement sufficiently rare and worthy of celebration. 

 

            The pair was the very opposite of what British historian Patricia Crone described as the syndrome of the acculturated nativists who rebelled, referring to today’s British-born sons of immigrants who became radical jihadists. Tengku and Razak were also acculturated nativists but they excelled! They knew how to negotiate with the British, having been trained by them. 

 

            The ulama-nationalists were severely handicapped in first not knowing the enemy. More crippling, they did not recognize their limitations. Their spiritual knowledge was useless against the British. Their language handicap compounded that deficit. 

 

            As per Sun Tzu, know yourself and your enemy well, fear not, you will prevail. Know only yourself but not the enemy, then every victory would be followed by a defeat. Not knowing yourself as well as the enemy would be fatal. Those nationalists ulama were in this last category. 

 

            Malaysia was fortunate to have been led in the early years by leaders who had absorbed the ways of the West and were committed to democracy as well as capitalism. That should have propelled Malaysia and Malays on a trajectory of development with the concomitant absorption of the scientific methods and capitalistic worldview while remaining deeply rooted in our Islamic beliefs and traditions. 

 

            Alas that was not to be. Left to our own devices and away from British influence, we lost those ideals that had once led Malaysia to her freedom. Since the 1980s under Prime Minister Mahathir, Malaysia changed her qiblat, as we Muslims put it. 

 

            Despite the brutalities of Japanese Occupation and those horrific memories still fresh, “Look East” became the new mantra. In tandem with that, Malays became swayed by the “modern” version of Islam where it would without shame or apology be exploited to further one’s political ends instead of using it to emancipate the ummah, as the Prophet did.

 

To today’s Islamists, Islam is less a faith, more potent weapon to be exploited in the pursuit of power. Nor is that power leveraged to better the ummah. This incestuous relationship between leaders and ulama is the bane of the ummah today, Malaysia included. Ancient scholars were very much aware of this danger; hence the expression heaven is full of rulers who befriended scholars, hell with scholars who had consorted with rulers. JAKIM’s generous allocations are but to coopt if not bribe the Islamists in return for their support.

 

To contemporary ulama, everything including their enrichment and aggrandizement became legitimate in the name of Allah, if not outright borkat (bounty) from Him. Thus, the obscenity of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, convicted of robbing 1MDB, being adoringly referred to as “Malu Apa Bossku?” (What is there to be ashamed about my boss?). He successfully convinced Malays with the ruse that the bounty came from a Saudi prince, and thus halal.  

 

            This massive and endemic corruption plagues the faith. These Islamists insert and assert themselves at all levels of government and beyond. Their most visible and prized target, as well as most consequential, is the nation’s education system. This together with their still raging “Islamization of Knowledge” fad resulted in schools and universities degenerating into centers for indoctrination instead of learning. With that, any semblance of critical thinking and original thought evaporated. 

 

            Who are we, today’s mere mortals, to challenge those ancient luminaries, these Islamists rationalized. That would be the equivalent of today’s scientists being satisfied with Newtonian physics, modern genetics on the Augustin friar Gregor Mendel’s peapod experiments, and neuropsychology being beholden to Freud. 

 

            This Islamization frenzy goes further. Academics at the International Islamic University’s (IIU) are quizzed with such intrusive questions as, “What do you think of the Shi’as?” Worse, Shi’ite literature there is kept under lock and key in the library. Should you inquire, you would be reported.

 

            I wonder how the few (if any) non-Muslim professors feel. Imagine Georgetown or Notre Dame University posing similar intrusive enquiries of their non-Catholic staff! 

 

            This reinforces the point that the Islam as currently propagated is the greatest obstacle to critical thinking and thus progress. This need not be as the Qur’an and hadith encourage and contain some of the best exercises in critical thinking.