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.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RSS