No future in political Islam, academic says

(Malay Mail Online) – Islam-based parties have no future in the current political arena as they set themselves apart in exclusive bubbles rather than participating in the global society, International Islamic University Malaysia professor Dr Maszlee Malik told a forum today.

The outspoken speaker also warned Islamist parties against taking democracy for a temporary ride like a “taxi” to come into power, stressing that parties must decide whether they wish to be political or religious missionary movements.

“The future is not with political Islam. The future is not going to be with Islamists, the future is not going to be with Islamic political parties in Muslim countries. That is a fact,” Maszlee told the World Forum for Muslim Democrats here.

“The future is with the open society. Political Islam, or democrat Islamists, should not live in exclusivity.”

In Malaysia, Islamist PAS is the most influential and successful Islam-based party, a member of the federal opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

In the 13th General Elections last year, PAS won 21 parliamentary seats out of the 89 won by PR, down 2 seats from the last polls in 2008.

Maszlee said Islamists cannot continue to deride anything from jahiliyyah civilisations as ”bad”, using the Arabic term for “ignorant” that refers to non-believers.

“You want to play with democracy you have to toe the rule of the game. You have to submit and really believe in it. You cannot use it as taxi,” said Maszlee, referring to democracy as the global zeitgeist.

Maszlee also pointed out to the recent fate of Tunisian Islamist party Ennahda, which lost to secular party Nida Tunis in an election last week, despite being the first Islamist movement to secure power after the 2011 Arab spring revolts.

“You want to be a political party, [but] you want to maintain your Islamic dakwah (preaching) orientation mentality, it never works such a way,” he added.

Fellow panelist Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad from PAS, subsequently defended the Islamist party by saying that it sees democracy as the way forward for Muslims as it provides a space for check and balance.

“It is not about rhetorics, no longer about saying ‘Islam is the solution’ … It is for us to provide convincing, compelling solutions that needs to be proposed,” Dzulkefly said, referring to policies on good governance, tackling poverty, discrimination, and unemployment.

In an environment that focuses on contestation of ideas, Dzulkefly said the challenge for PAS now is to convince voters of what it offers, rather than coerce them using divine authority.

Analysts told Malay Mail Online in September that PAS is already losing ground among middle Malaysia as the Islamist party grows more religiously conservative but it can reverse the decline if its leaders correct its course.

PAS emerged out of its annual congress, or muktamar, this year as an apparently divisive party, with the party’s once all-powerful clergy class fighting hard to keep PAS true to its Islamic roots.

The two-day forum was jointly-organised by Japan’s Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Indonesia’s Habibie Center, Turkey’s Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, and Malaysia’s Institut Kajian Dasar.