Interpretation of Islam cannot be left only to Jakim, says academic
(Malay Mail Online) – Muslims in the country can only benefit from allowing a wide range of views in the interpretation of Islam, Assoc Prof Dr Azmi Sharom said today, amid a slew of legal challenges by religious authorities against judgements by the civil court.
The Universiti Malaya law lecturer said Malaysian Muslims are pressured by the current system that recognises the interpretation of the religion by the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) as the only legitimate view on Islam.
“What is definitely lacking here is enough views from different scholars and interpretations, so that people can come to their own minds (about Islam),” Azmi said at a forum on freedom of expression held at the varsity’s law faculty.
In typical fashion, Azmi picked at the authorities’ insistence that there cannot be any other interpretation of Islam apart from that which is officially sanctioned by the government, saying that it stunts Muslims’ ability to fully understand their faith.
He argued that all scholarly views and interpretations of Islam should be ventilated, including Jakim’s views.
“In terms of religion, we’ve only got Jakim’s view. It is Jakim’s view or no view at all… this is unhealthy,” Azmi said.
Religious tension has been at a constant simmer over the past few years, with a string of cases challenging the legal limits of Islamic jurisprudence in the country.
The most recent was a landmark ruling by the Court of Appeal on November 7 that found Section 66 of the Negri Sembilan Shariah Criminal Enactment 1992, which prohibits Muslim men from cross-dressing, to be unconstitutional and void.
The case prompted the minister in charge of Islamic Affairs, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, to claim that Muslim transgenders, among others, were colluding with Islam’s enemies to put its religious institutions on trial in a secular court, and that Muslims must defend their faith from liberal ideologies “by any method”.
It also prompted Islamic authorities to confirm plans to create a Shariah equivalent of the Federal Court that would prevent the civil courts from ruling on matters concerning Islam.
Islamic authorities have also been gradually widening their enforcement beyond Muslims, and in January, Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) confiscated over 300 Malay — and Iban-language — Bibles from the premises of the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM).
Though the holy books — which were bound for Sarawak — were eventually released last week, Christians in the country’s largest state were livid after discovering that the Bibles were stamped with a warning that they were not to be printed or distributed in Selangor or to Muslims.
