Can a Muslim be liberal in Malaysia?

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jul 8, 2015

So they are not really PAS liberals. They are PAS people who want to win elections even if they have to pretend to be liberals. And I can assure you if you invite them to have a beer with you they will get most upset at your lack of sensitivity and disrespect for Islam.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

According to The Malaysian Insider news report (see below), a number of renowned judges and lawyers are arguing about whether it is right to be liberal or should one avoid liberalism since there are certain Islamic values and principles to take into consideration.

In case you do not fully comprehend what ‘liberal’, and the opposite to that, ‘conservative’, means, see the simple definition I have listed below.

We are all to a certain extent both liberal and conservative, depending on what we are talking about. Hence to say that one is liberal or another is conservative is not quite accurate. We are normally a mix of both.

Therefore, before you go and claim that you are either one or the other, be very clear about what the subject matter is first. You may be liberal in some things but extremely conservative in others. So you cannot really claim to be liberal or conservative unless we are clear as to what the issue is.

As an example, many whack the PAS conservatives and support the PAS liberals. But then are these PAS liberals really that liberal as you claim they are?

PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang (allegedly a PAS conservative) twice visited Gossip, our family kopitiam in Manchester. At first I was worried when I was told he was coming for dinner because Gossip sells beer, wine and hard liquor although the food is halal.

Just to digress a bit, I tell people that our food ‘ditanggung halal’ whereas our drinks ‘ditanggung sendiri’.

Anyway, Hadi did not say a word. He did not tell me that as Muslims we should not be selling something that is haram and that the money we earn from haram business is not berkat and so on.

In that sense I would categorise Hadi as liberal, according to the definition below.

Then we had this other Malay, an Umno supporter, who came in and then left a note for me to tell me that the food was wonderful but as Muslims we should not be selling arak because it is haram.

That chap was certainly conservative as far as I am concerned although he supports Umno and not PAS.

So it is not so clear-cut as to who is liberal and who is conservative, even for PAS people. People like Dr Dzulkilfi Ahmad, Dr Hatta Ramli, Mat Sabu, Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, Khalid Samad, and many more, are being touted as the PAS liberals who are getting the support of DAP and the non-Muslims. But then what do you mean by liberal and how really liberal are they?

If you mean they are liberal just based on the fact that they oppose the Islamic State and reject Hudud (which they actually do not but merely oppose its immediate implementation and say that this can only be done once the people have been properly educated and are ready) then that is too narrow a definition.

What is their stand on apostasy, gay unions, drinking, gambling, couples living together out of wedlock, prostitution, pornography, Christians proselytising to Muslims, inter-faith marriages (especially Muslims marrying non-Muslims without the need to convert to Islam), children from mixed marriages adopting the religion of their non-Muslim parent, and so on?

Are these PAS liberals also okay with all this?

They will not dare reply even if you ask them because they are not okay with all this. They oppose all this. But they also oppose the Islamic State and Hudud (until the time is right to implement them, maybe long after they are dead) because they know to support it would cause a loss of votes and they do not want to lose votes.

So how liberal is liberal and how far does your liberalism really extend? Probably the only person who will not turn down my invitation to go and see some sexy pole-dancing in Phuket would be Mat Sabu. The others will think I am mad to even suggest it.

Ah, yes, Phuket, with all those lovely lady boys at the Banana Disco.

Now that is what I would call liberal.

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Equality is not about being liberal, ex-judge tells former chief justice

(The Malaysian Insider) – A retired Federal Court judge has taken a former chief justice to task for claiming that liberal-minded judges are a threat to Malaysia’s Islamic values as they used Western human rights as a benchmark to administer justice.

Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram said it was wrong for Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad to label judges as liberals because those who sat on the bench were required to interpret the law correctly.

“It is a most unfair criticism to level against a Court of Appeal judgment which accorded equality to people different from us, purely on medical reasons,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Sri Ram said this in response to a report in Utusan Malaysia on Monday where Hamid was quoted as saying that the liberal judges had overlooked that the Federal Constitution recognised offences under Islamic law.

Hamid cited the Court of Appeal landmark ruling last year which declared Section 66 of the Syariah Criminal (Negri Sembilan) Enactment 1992 void and unconstitutional.

That provision punished Muslim men who dress up as women.

Three make-up artists had challenged the constitutionalty of the law after they were penalised for cross-dressing.

Sri Ram, who has written numerous landmark judgments in administrative and constitutional law, said judges who supported discrimination against transgenders are perfectly capable of being prejudiced against those who are mentally and physically challenged.

“(The judges) used the principle of reasonableness which was adopted by the Supreme Court of India, which allowed judges to declare laws made by Parliament to be invalid.”

Hamid, however, had said that the constitution of those countries are not the same as ours.

“Their constitution does not have provisions regarding Islam, unlike ours. Their values are not the same as ours,” Hamid was reported as saying in the Umno-owned daily. (READ MORE HERE)

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Liberal

Willing to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one’s own.

Open to new ideas.

Favouring individual liberty.

Favouring reform.

Not bound by traditional thinking.

Broad-minded.

Conservative

Opposed to change or innovation.

Holding traditional views and values.

Traditional or restrained in style

Moderate.

Cautious.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK