“True Teachings of Islam”: Academic Unfreedom, Muslim Conformity, and Gender Inequality? – Part 2
Muslims cannot be trusted to be Muslims on their own.
Azza Basarudin, TMI
(*This is a three-part series on academic freedom, interpretations of Islam and Muslim conformity and the Malaysian women’s movement*)
Read Part I here
Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin plans to grant RM100 million in research funds to UIA to promote “true teachings of Islam.” He stated, “Muslims are now facing challenges which are not of their own making. The spread of western liberalism, under the pretext of human rights activism and gender rights movement, has brought new beliefs and ideas that are totally against Islam”.
He cited “gay rights, lesbianism and same-sex marriage” as examples and said they are “sinful acts abhorred by Islam”. He suggested that this is made worse because “some Muslims do not just believe this, but also actively propagate these false beliefs to other Muslims”.
One of the many challenges facing Muslims mainly arises from how Islam has been interpreted and practised. Islam is not set in stone; it is what is understood, practised and disseminated by its adherents.
To avoid essentialising Islam and Muslims, it is important to note that Islam is not the sole factor in Muslim lives, and for the most part is not always the solution to all problems. In Malaysia, factors such as historical legacy, racial politics, education, autocracy, nation building and so on play significant roles in Muslim lives. Scriptural interpretation and “Islamic” laws and policies have to be understood as a wider part of the Malaysian fabric.
In Malaysia, citizens who claim Islam as their faith are subjected to paternalistic state surveillance that seeks to regulate their relationship with the Divine and monopolise the meaning of Islam.
The tools of surveillance include censorship, criminalisation and admonishment of anything construed as “insulting Islam and Muslims”. This, in turn, dismisses Muslim citizens as those whose faith is easily swayed.
