Dressed in a modern gray suit teamed with a black skull cap, Malaysian cleric Asri Zainul Abidin is the poster boy for liberal Muslims who are tussling with hardliners in this multi-ethnic nation.
Asri, 39, is considered one of Malaysia’s top Islamic theologians and has a growing following of young, educated Muslims who are drawn by his moderate views.
However, the thoroughly modern mufti now faces trial on charges that could land him in jail for two years in what his supporters say is an attempt to muzzle liberal voices in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
“Yes, there is a battle for Islam between the conservatives and progressives in Malaysia,” Asri said.
“We will enter the dark ages if we allow the conservatives to win,” he said.
Asri has been charged under Shariah law for giving a lecture on Islam in November last year without authorization.
However, the cleric says his real offense has been to enrage the country’s religious establishment, which has become increasingly strident in recent times, imposing caning sentences that have rarely if ever been enforced before.
Shariah courts — which operate alongside the civil courts in a dual-track system — recently ordered three young Muslim women to be caned for having extramarital sex.
Another mother-of-two also faced a thrashing after being caught drinking beer, but after her case hit the headlines, she was ordered to do a spell of community service instead.
“Now they just say punish, punish and punish. Religion is not about punishment. Right now we have to educate the people. It is not the right time to impose punishment,” Asri said.
“The right thing to do now is to educate. You must make it easy for people to get married by giving them financial aid so they will not indulge in extramarital sex,” he said.
Straddling the fault line in the debate are Malaysia’s minority races who are concerned over rising “Islamization” and fear that tolerance toward Christians, Hindus and others is diminishing.
A series of disputes has erupted between majority Muslim Malays and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians in recent years, straining relations half a century after the founding of the secular nation.
A simmering row over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims saw attacks on 11 churches, a mosque and two Muslim prayer halls, including fire-bombings and vandalism.
Asri, who was the mufti of Perlis state until 2008 and is now a university lecturer, said the conservatives are ramping up their rhetoric and imposing harsh punishments in a bid to cement their power base.
“They can win the battle, but with the age of the Internet where information is easily available, they cannot win the hearts and minds of the young and educated Muslims who wants answers based on reason,” he said.
Chandra Muzaffar, a political scientist and Islamic reformist, described Asri as a progressive and inclusive Muslim.
“He represents the essence of Islam. He recognizes the rights of other faiths and regards them as part of a larger human family,” Chandra said.
Chandra said that while he believed the views of the conservatives were not shared by the majority of ordinary Muslims, the moderates were generally failing to speak out.
He said that had given free reign to a small but vocal minority of conservatives, represented by the religious bureacrats who are the guardians of Islam in each of Malaysia’s states.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS