Islamism — Between the Hard and Soft Variety
By Farish A. Noor ~ September 29th, 2009. Filed under: Syndicated Columns.
A year ago I was present at a dialogue session in my beloved adopted city of Jogjakarta and had the opportunity to listen to an Islamist politician answer questions that were put to him by a group of Indonesian gender rights activists.
One of them asked the following question: “What is your Islamic Party’s stand on homosexuality?”
To which the Islamist politician replied: “As an Islamist I cannot condone homosexuality, and I cannot render halal that which is seen as haram in Islam, anymore than I can declare alcohol to be halal. But this I can say: when confronted by things like this, we have two choices: the hard choice or the soft choice. We can take the hard line and say that homosexuals are wrong and they ought to be punished. Or we can take the soft line and say that they are a gendered minority, and while they are practicing something we do not approve, we should defend them when they come under attack and we should counsel them. As an Islamist, I choose the latter, because for me Islam is still the religion of love, not hate.”
As I know the Islamist politician personally, I had no doubts that he was sincere in his reply. Furthermore he is one of the few Islamist politicians whom I know has been at the forefront of the struggle to present a moderate and progressive face of Islamist politics in his country.
This brings us to the dilemma that we see all over the Muslim world today, and which affects almost all Muslim countries including Malaysia and Indonesia. All over the Muslim world we see that the forces of political Islam are still on the march and working to find their way to achieving political power. But the doubts and concerns that many of us have lies in the question of what the Islamists will do when they come to power. Will this power be used for the betterment of all, or will it simply be accumulated and monopolised at the hands of the few? And when it comes to the question of Islamic politics and jurisprudence, have we taken the step towards a more humane understanding of Islamic law and justice? Or are we still at the primordial level of public executions, floggings and stoning to death?
In Malaysia a Muslim woman is about to be whipped for drinking alcohol, despite the fact that she has paid her fine and admitted her guilt. Islamist politicians talk about banning music concerts, pop events and more and more moral policing into the private lives of citizens. In Indonesia radical Islamist groups are calling for the virtual extermination of groups like the Ahmadis, Churches have been burnt in West Java and radical Islamists call on their brothers to take their jihad to the streets. In both countries secular politicians are paralysed and unable to comment or reject these demands outright, leaving the debate in the hands of a few self-appointed guardians of the faith. Books are banned, women mistreated, minorities marginalised - and yet secular liberals and democrats remain unable to do anything.
In the midst of this, the question of which direction political Islam will take in Malaysia and Indonesia is an important one. Both countries wish to present themselves as model Muslim states for the world to follow, yet in Indonesia’s Aceh province the Islamic authorities have sanctioned the stoning to death of adulterers. How, pray tell, will this reflect on the image of Islamists, Islam and Muslims?
Faced with this question one can only hope that common sense and reason will be re-injected into the debate and that the progressive Islamists we see in Malaysia and Indonesia will triumph in the end. The Muhamadiyyah movement of Indonesia, for instance, pioneered modern education and was among the first to insist on a logical, rational and objective understanding of Islam; while the Nahdatul Ulama have continued to insist time and again that Indonesian Muslims need to be proud of their culture and heritage, and not embarrassed about being Indonesians rather than Arabs.
The ’soft’ approach that was counseled by the Islamist leader I mentioned above therefore is needed more than ever now. For as groups like the Fron Pembela Islam or Majlis Mujahidin Indonesia continue to rant against minorities and speak of conspiracies against them, the fact remains that Muslims worldwide are subject to real problems that stem from real institutional weaknesses in their own societies. To simply blame everything on the so-called ‘evil West’ or the ‘Jewish conspiracy’ is too simple and easy a solution to what is really an endemic problem of bad governance, poverty, social injustice, gender bias, racism and abuse of power among Muslims themselves.
For Islamism to even remain relevant today, Islamists (like the ones I mentioned above) will have to understand that we live in modern democratic societies where laws and governance are measured in the public eye in terms of concrete long term results. All the hate-campaigns and pogroms of groups like Fron Pembela Islam in Indonesia have done nothing for Muslims there, but only worsened the prejudice against Islamists in toto. Rather than hot air and fiery rhetoric, Islamists need to demonstrate that they can govern justly in plural societies and learn to live with difference and diversity. Demonising gays, non-Muslims, women and other minorities is no longer a gimmick that works, and in fact is now counter-productive.
To this it should be added that the ’soft’ Islamist approach to dealing with real social issues should not be seen as the ‘weak’ approach neither. Just because an Islamist renounces violence and violent hateful rhetoric, doesnt make him/her a lame Islamist with no teeth. In fact, the reality is precisely the opposite: It is only when Islamists stop wasting our time with silly bans on concerts and movies, and stop scaring us with threats of demonstrations and pogroms, that they will be taken seriously. If Islamists really want power, then they ought to demonstrate an adult and rational ability to deal with power and its mechanics. Anything else is just empty sloganeering and posturing, and ought to be left on the soap-box with the other peddlers of nonsense and hype.
September 30th, 2009 at 19:11
“in Indonesia’s Aceh province the Islamic authorities have sanctioned the stoning to death of adulterers. How, pray tell, will this reflect on the image of Islamists, Islam and Muslims?”
Is there any snatch thief in Acheh? What’s the use of ‘image’ if you have to worry for your belongings’ safety or you discover foetuses in the trash bin or inside the toilet bowl?
Try googling ‘hudud nurin’ (without the apostrophe) and you will understand the actual major problem faced in Malaysia, and definitely the ‘image’ thing does not matter.
October 1st, 2009 at 04:50
Dear Mr. Noor,
This article is brilliant, as any of your articles usually anyway. Please send this very imortant article to the Guardian and other EU editors, especially Der Spiegel (English section) in Germany and NRC Handelsblad in Holland. These newspapers are looking for unique and genuine Islamic intellectualas like yourself -so far Islamic intellectual voices here have been from the Middle East or Pakistan. This is very urgent - also that South-East Asian Muslims to reclaim back their own diverse Islamic identities and rationalization of Islam within progressive modernity, instead of imitating blindly homogenous Arabic-style Dark Age Islamism as jointly and deceitfully led by AlQaeda-Iran-Muslim Brotherhood at the moment, globally!!
Katharina Sri (former: Noor Aza)
Germany
October 1st, 2009 at 16:33
Serious Shepherd, that is besides the point. How will the act of stoning adulterers to death help you feel more secure? How will it help prevent snatch thefts?
The point the article is making, the way I see it, is that Islamism is NOT all about anger, hate and violence. It can be about making people feel inclusive as well. The image thing certainly does matter; for people to accept and embrace Islam — and subsequently, Islamism — we need to show that we’re not the sort of people who will resort to violence on a whim.
Engage in the article rather than nitpicking, please.
October 1st, 2009 at 17:14
Anonymous Coward, in case you are not from Malaysia, you should understand that in Malaysia the stoning of adulterers to death is packaged along with chopping off convicted thieves’ hands, under a term popularly known as hudud. Funny how ‘potong tangan’ in Acheh is not highlighted but clearly snatch thieves are uncommon in contrast with cities with ‘moderate & progressive Islam’ such as Johor Baru.
Besides, should a society be considered ‘progressive’ if there cases of newborn babies being dumped into toilet bowl or 1 out of 4 teenage girls are found to be infected with STD?
October 1st, 2009 at 17:55
It´s ironic when people say image does not matter and at the same time they do worry about projecting this * holier-than-thy- regular Arab* image (among themselves) nést pas? Just a thought!
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:27
Wow! No wonder the Polisi shot Nordin Top dead. His anus was distorted…used to store explosives, according to Malaysians — not for the other thing, you know. Jihad killing of Indonesians is okay because he could have been rehabilitated according to one Menteri there called Tan Sir Hishamuddin. Like I said, Wow!
October 3rd, 2009 at 19:01
“Islamists need to demonstrate that they can govern justly in plural societies and learn to live with difference and diversity” …. this seems to be one of the crucial questions of our era. The world has moved on massively over the centuries. Can one live at peace in ones heart in a society and world filled difference, with the unknown, with change … without the desperate desire to control and make the same.
Tolerance, peace, compassion.
October 7th, 2009 at 03:16
Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet of theirs. The Christian new testament reports Jesus as saying “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you”. If we adopt this instead of the mentality of, “you don’t pray 5 times a day, therefore you’re not a Muslim, and as a non-Muslim, you’re my enemy, and as my enemy, I hate you and you deserve to die”, much of the violence would be gone.
October 7th, 2009 at 16:06
Stoning to death for adulterers - is it in the Quran?
Maybe what is wrong our society now is the human development. We tend to push our children to excell academically and yet we take for granted on the spiritual development. Why the Quran not given to Prophet Muhammad as soon as he was procaliamed as a prophet but given over a period of 23 years. The Muslim intellectuals may have to look into this and maybe develop some form procedure towards spiritual development as what was done by our beloved prophet.
October 7th, 2009 at 23:06
My understanding of Islam is not excatly what I see practised by many Moslems.
The Koran asks that a women dress ‘modestly’. There is no mention of veils, hidjabs nor burqas.
There is nothing either on ‘floggings’ or ’stoned to death’. Nothing.
The Koran asks that all citizens be treated as equals, their faiths and places of worship be respected. That would mean, I presume, ALL citizens, whatever their colour, race or sexual persuasion.
I am not a ‘Moslem’ nor am I heavy-duty into any other faith. But I do know that it is wise to respect each and every individual, their ‘GOD’ and faith. I am also aware that it is not the number of prayers you perform, the fine clothes you wear or your status that defines a ‘good moslem’, christian, hindu or whatever.
It is how you treat me, your neighbours, friends and strangers, that matter.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:57
SubhanAllah. Thank you so much for such a well-written article. I feel obliged to share it with others. I’m certain that the sentiment expressed in the conclusion is shared by the majority of practising Muslims all over.
October 8th, 2009 at 22:05
There are many countries in Europe and Asia, Japan, for example, where the crime rates are very low, but without harsh punishments. Singapore, for example, has a very low crime rate, but it does not have hudud laws. Saudi Arabia has hudud laws, but it has a much higher crime rate. The real deterrent to crime is not simply the severity of punishment, but the efficacy of law enforcement. Therefore you find that in places with very efficient and incorrupt law enforcements, people are deterred from commiting crimes. I personally suspect that in many Muslim countries, governments play the hudud card because it distracts people from the fact that they are not able to keep crime rates down due to their own inefficiencies and corruptions.
October 11th, 2009 at 17:50
“Mazlan Mahmud - Maybe what is wrong our society now is the human development. We tend to push our children to excell academically and yet we take for granted on the spiritual development. Why the Quran not given to Prophet Muhammad as soon as he was procaliamed as a prophet but given over a period of 23 years. The Muslim intellectuals may have to look into this and maybe develop some form procedure towards spiritual development as what was done by our beloved prophet.”
It is commonly known that the path of spiritual development and the methods and procedures to traverse it from an Islamic perspective have been mapped out in great detail and precision by the Sufi’s. The materials are all at hand.
It is perhaps worth noting that spiritual development isn’t something that intellectuals can be expected to administer. Spiritual development is something that requires direct experience, not mere intellectual speculation. Even those who practice falsafah cannot lead you directly to this experience. Is this not so?
I genuinely hope this to be of some help.
October 14th, 2009 at 16:08
Try asking the Achehnese whether words like ‘Chlamydia trachomatis’ means anything to them. Try asking the doctors working in Acheh whether they have enough antibiotics to deal with the bacterium. If they don’t have much in stock, then you can ask them why, and the simplest answer is because STD does not spread like wildfire, and it’s due to the fact that adultery is not a lifestyle, even without the stoning to death punishment, which will be reserved and to be exclusively for rapists, including child rapists.
Unfortunately in Singapore, words like ‘Chlamydia trachomatis’ and ‘Non-gonococcal urethritis’ have existed in Singaporean medical journal even in the 80s, in which the journal is based on situation at Middle Road Hospital.
October 14th, 2009 at 16:38
“In Malaysia a Muslim woman is about to be whipped for drinking alcohol, despite the fact that she has paid her fine and admitted her guilt.”
This statement utterly wrong and totally bias.
The woman you refered to, wanted to be whipped. The Malaysian government has acquitted her. This acquittal happened soon after she admitted her guilt and was fine for the offence made.
But, she kept on insisting to be whipped, and to her, it is in accordance to the Islamic law.
I don’t see any good, only bad, conniving intentions.
October 16th, 2009 at 16:32
Nelson-Said: The Koran asks that all citizens be treated as equals, their faiths and places of worship be respected. That would mean, I presume, ALL citizens, whatever their colour, race or sexual persuasion.
But the Koran says: Qur’an:9:5 “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.”
Please Nelson read the koran it is eye opener.
Pentti
October 25th, 2009 at 20:36
Dear Pentti, perhaps I’ve read a ‘re-invented’ Koran.
If you are correct, than perhaps, Islam has to either ‘re-invent’ itself, or remain a barrier to world peace. Which is NOT good for the faith of Islam. Not good at all.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:28
Dear Pentti,
The translation that you’ve gave come from only a verse of Quran. Did you care to check the few earlier verses and the few after that? Or better still, read the whole of Quran to get the true spirit of it?
This is also the way that the so-called ulama’ of Islam purposely confused their follower for their own benefits, use the verse(s) which condone their thinking and action only. The Quran has warned us about this kind of people.
In the same way, i didnt accuse Christians and Jews to be violent people although i can search and pick up any verse from their respected holy books to point exactly to that.
To be fair, get any book for that matter and just pick up any line from the book that is contrary to the spirit of the main title and accuse the author of lying?
Hope we all learn from history and didnt do the mistakes that have put the world in so much hate and anger without even know the reasons for it.
Peace.
November 5th, 2009 at 23:08
mohon untuk terjemah dan siarkan di laman saya
(Go ahead. Just don’t forget to attribute the author and source of the article. Terima kasih. – Yusseri)