What to Make of ‘Erdoganist’ Dzulkefly Ahmad’s Statement?

I don’t trust PAS. While I am a Muslim and PAS is ostensibly an Islamic party, I cannot forget that there are many approaches and interpretations to Islam.

By Farouk A. Peru

At one period in Islamic history, it is reported that there around 500 different approaches of Islam (‘approaches’ here is translated from the Arabic ‘madhabib’ which although means ‘schools of law’ now, comes from the Arabic ‘dhahaba’ which denotes ‘going, approaching’). However, most of these approaches died out when the Abbasids, who needed to legitimise their kingship against the growing Shia influence, began backing certain approaches over others, resulting in there only being 4 ‘schools of laws’ or what we now know as ‘ahlus-sunnah wal jamaah’ or sunnism.

PAS is a member of the ahlus-sunnah and believes in classical sharia law, formulated during the time of Shafiee, the architect of sunni legal theory. There is a difference between being a sunni Muslim, that is employing the sunni approach to rites and rituals (as most Malaysian Muslims do) and being an Islamist, that is one who believes in the sunni legal theory. The sunni legal theory was formed during the period of an Islamic empire which looked for Islamic legitimization of its imperialist ambition. Hence we have concepts like darul-islam/darul-harb (abode of Islam/abode of war) which basically states that Muslims must look at non-Muslim lands as lands which eventually must be conquered or at the very least, for the time being, should have temporary treatises of ceasefire.  

PAS subscribes to this legal theory. Try asking one of their head honchos about this and see for yourself. 

Now back to Dzulkefly. Dzulkefly has been touted as an Erdoganist which implies that he is a liberal. Just how liberal is Tayyib Erdogan and Abdullah Gul anyway? So liberal in fact that in their last local elections, they lost more than 10 percent of their previous voters which they had in the last general election. The reason was due to Erdogan’s increased arrogance and aggressiveness. Islamisation is a democratic process and it’s very clear that the AK party which Erdogan belongs to didn’t care for democratic consent after they got into power. Of course, before they got into power is another thing altogether. Another thing to remember is that in Turkey, one cannot be overtly Islamic. To proclaim intent for an Islamic state would be to invite the Turkish army to launch a coup d’etat and take over.

In Malaysia, it’s of course less drastic but PAS is definitely in a quandary. On one hand, PAS needs to appease its Islamist voters (as Husam foolishly did last year when he announced that when PAS takes over, it will establish an Islamic state) and on the other hand, it has ‘moderate’ Muslim voters and non-Muslim voters who will run once they hear that dreaded phrase. 

Enter Dzulkefly Ahmad. The so-called Erdoganist. Erdogan has to put up with the fact that in Turkey, one can be from a Muslim background but an atheist. He may not want to but he has to. It’s the law, part of the constitution. Dzulkefly however categorically does not believe that. Lets not forget his pathetic attempt to support the compulsion on Lina Joy to remain officially Muslim. Dzulkefly did not stand for consent, for freedom of democracy then. He stood for the sunni legal theory I mentioned above. This theory refuses anyone the right to leave Islam because it was born during an imperialist time and imperialists cannot afford to have their members jump ship. It’s not good for business at all.

 

Dzulkefly’s first line of persuasion to appease the worry about PAS establishing the Islamic state was that PAS did not have enough candidates. They are only fielding 75 candidates for 222 seats. They cannot form an Islamic state. However, what if they did have enough candidates? Well, Dzulkefly tells us that PAS doesn’t want to impose Islam on others anyway.  

Is that why Husam Musa last year, when cornered by KJ, was forced to announce that PAS would establish an Islamic state? Nik Aziz and Hadi both rallied behind Husam and Nik then even asked his Pakatan Rakyat partners if they could ‘logically’ refute the notion of an Islamic state. How convincing then is Dzulkefly’s statement that PAS will not impose its Islamic state on anyone? 

Not convincing at all, to me. 

Finally, Dzulkefly said that shariah law could be reconsidered, even those about religious conversions. Magnanimous. Thank you Dzulkefly but can we ask you, why now? Why is it when the world was looking at us to decide correctly on Lina Joy, you took the Islamofascist side? Why will you reconsider things now? Did you find some kind of revelation in the Quran all of a sudden? Perhaps what is more likely is that you realise that the vicissitudes of the voters are changing. Even Malays now are more liberal than before and they realise that the Quran does in fact support religious freedom even if PAS does not. Of course Sharia law can change but should it change to win votes? Even more pertinent, will PAS allow it to change?  

Dzulkefly’s attempt to assuage voters of the ideological renovations being considered by PAS is nothing more than the same tricks which Husam Musa got the public to swallow last year. That is why now we have a Pakatan Rakyat which is breaking at the seams with DAP wanting one thing, PAS wanting the opposite and Keadilan playing childish politics. If Malaysia is ever to break free of the yoke of BN, we need a credible opposition and we need to dismiss this claptrap by Dr Dzulkefly Ahmed.