KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — Panelists at a roundtable discussion on Islam and human rights today lamented the dearth of ijtihad, or independent reasoning, among modern Muslims which has led to the religion being uniquely hostile towards diverse views and interpretations.
According to the panellists, the Muslim world had flourished with scholars and ground-breaking scientists when the Mutazilites from a school that espouses reason and rational thought were influential, but has now resorted to suppressing dissent instead.
“In Islamic societies, compared to other societies, especially in the Western worlds, the variety, diversity of views is absolutely suppressed,” said Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi, an emeritus professor of law at Universiti Teknologi Mara.
“So there’s only one view of Islam, the predominant view that comes out not only in foreign media but our own media. And I think that’s the big difference between Islam and other religions.”
UK-based academic James Piscatori, a professor at Durham University, explained that rationalism has always been part of Islam, with the Mutazila school of thought that flourished between 8th and 10th century embedded in Islamic philosophy.
“Why at that time there was a baitul hikmah, or a house of wisdom? … It was because of the philosophical foundation of the Mutazilites, based on reason,” said Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa of Muslim group Islamic Renaissance Front, agreeing.
“The most important concept of Mutazilites was that there can’t be any contradiction between what was in the Quran and reason.”
Farouk claimed that the opposite is occurring now with the prevalence of Muslims who take the Quran literally, such as the puritanical Salafi movement and hardline Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir.
Former Sessions Court judge Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin pointed out that the decline in intellectualism within the local Islamic clergy class stems from the inferior level of education needed for them to be qualified as an ulama, or an Islamic scholar.
“I’d say they have a very shallow understanding … They’re totally intolerant of dissenting views. It is incumbent upon ourselves to challenge these people,” said Noor Farida, a spokesman of a group of outspoken former high-ranking Malay civil servants dubbed G25.
Putrajaya, which recognises only the Sunni denomination, has been stepping up its campaign against other branches which are regarded as “deviant” by Malaysia, especially Shiah, which is Islam’s second-largest branch.
After the two largest denominations, Islam is further divided into different schools of jurisprudence, of which only the Shafi’i school — followed by 29 per cent of Muslims worldwide — is recognised by Putrajaya.
