PENANG, Nov 18 — Religious overlords, better known for chastising Muslims for practising yoga and girls for adopting tomboyish looks, are now training their guns on one of their own.
He is an outspoken Muslim cleric who is preaching a more modernist form of Islam.
Earlier this month, Dr Asri Zainul Abidin, the former mufti of Perlis, was arrested in a widely publicised raid by the Islamic Affairs Department of Selangor, or Jais, for preaching without a permit.
The 38-year-old preacher, who is set to be charged today at a syariah court in Selangor, has also been accused by his critics on religious websites and Malay-language newspapers of promoting Wahhabism, the brand of Islam that flourishes in Saudi Arabia.
In an interview with The Straits Times last week, the bespectacled Asri, who sports a neatly trimmed beard, said the charge against him was an abuse of the law and highlighted the arbitrary powers of the country's religious authorities.
“They don't like my views,” he said in reference to the country's traditional ulama, clerics who dominate the religious authorities and agencies throughout Malaysia.
He added: “People like me are a threat because we want to encourage more discussion and debate in Islam and not leave it to those who claim to have power over the religion to decide what is haram and halal”, referring to what is not permissible and permissible in Islam.
The controversy swirling around Asri is being watched closely. It marks the first time in recent history that long-simmering undercurrents between the country's powerful traditionalist ulamas and Muslim Malaysia's more progressive preachers is bubbling to the surface.
Religion is a sensitive issue in multiracial Malaysia and public debate about Islam, the official religion, is usually avoided.
But many Muslims privately complain that the government's push for greater Islamisation over the last three decades has resulted in many religious bodies wielding huge powers over their daily lives.
The Malaysian Fatwa Council regularly issues edicts, often in the form of blanket prohibition, in the name of Islam and Muslims.
Stand-out examples include the banning of yoga among Muslims because it was rooted in Hinduism; forbidding girls and Muslim women from behaving like tomboys; and banning heavy metal songs, lest Muslim fans be inclined to become followers of satanic cults.
Because religion and politics are intertwined, Malay Muslim politicians from government and the opposition have rarely questioned the position of the traditional ulama.
Asri, a religious scholar from the University of Jordan, is among a handful of high-profile clerics who have openly spoken out against the outdated traditional practices in Islam and pushed for greater debate and discussion of religious matters.
“This charge against me is designed to embarrass me and stop me from pushing for a more progressive brand of Islam,” said the soft-spoken cleric who is now teaching at the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang.
He also insisted that the country's traditional ulama are refusing to acknowledge the changes sweeping Malaysia's Muslims, particularly the young.
“Just like the tsunami that hit the country's political landscape, a similar phenomenon is also happening in Islam here. The world has changed with the Internet and with the free flow of information, many of the young are starting to question,” he said.
“We can't use Pakistan or Bangladesh as models. We have to look at the transformation (of Islam) in developed and developing countries like Indonesia and the West.
“My view is that the market to discuss Islam should be open. Let it be a competition to discuss views regarding the proper message of Islam and not a competition for power.” — The Straits Times
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