AKRAM GILL  

Intolerant Proprietors Of Islam

There seems to be an obsession with catching people and quickly punishing them. Islam has become a series what you cannot do or what you have done wrong.
 

 The media have lately been reporting a lot of news about Islam and the arrest of certain individuals for breach of certain rulings. There has been much talk about the enforcement of the religion by the religion’s enforcement officers. Islam is perhaps the only religion that still employs enforcement officers to save soul.

 Nevertheless the Islam that was revealed to the Prophet remains a tolerant religion, in the past Islam has spread throughout the world reaching into China, the Malay Archipelago and India based largely on its teaching of tolerance and submission to God.

 When Islam ruled Spain, a large number of Jews took refuge in Spain from Christian Europe. The Moghul Emperor Akhbar expanded a large kingdom in India and advocated tolerance and respect for all religions. But the tolerance that is accorded by Islam is best appreciated by those outside Islam.

 Within the religion itself tolerance is only a façade. There seems to be a preoccupation with watching how others pray, observe their faith and perform a myriad of other rituals. There seems to be an obsession with catching people and quickly punishing them. Islam has become a series what you cannot do or what you have done wrong.

 There have been suggestions in the past to check the attendance of people at the Friday prayers using magnetic swipe cards. We have laws which fine Muslims for not observing the fast. The issue of aurat (women’s only) is now being actively discussed.

 We must differentiate between the religion of Islam and its practitioners. More often than not the problem crops up when some practitioners start to behave as though they are the sole proprietor over the religion. And often they do things that were never part of the religion in the first place.
 

 It is felt that only they can discuss matters and only they can decide on issues at hand. Others are welcome to join in but you must play according to their rules only. You have to think like them and talk like them and sometimes even look like them before you are allowed into their cabal. And if you a women, well let’s not be too ambitious, OK?

 And as for Islam itself we must differentiate between the pure Islam that was revealed to the Prophet and the Institutionalised Islam of the theologians, the jurors and the rulers who came later. Almost all the time the intolerance that is visible today is handiwork of the latter. The beauty and the glory that is the real Islam is still preserved in the revelations that were given to the Prophet. The Qur’an says, “Surely We have revealed this message and surely We will safeguard it”. Surah 15:9

 As an example, nowhere in the Qur’an does God prescribe any kind of punishment, especially the death penalty for those who renounce their faith in Islam (apostasy). But the Institutionalised Islam prescribes a death penalty for those who leave the religion. But even among the jurors and Scholars differ on this issue. Different proprietary views. I was surprised to hear an Islamic speaker at a recent talk who said that there was no punishment of death for apostates. He held that there was no ‘nas’ or proof for such a thing in the Islamic literature.

 But the sole proprietors are not perturbed. To them it is case of caveat emptor or “buyer beware”. When you are in Islam you should know their rules. And their rules say that you can check in but you can never check out, except if you want to go out feet first.

 If a muslim openly declares that he is leaving the faith and starts to do things that are outside the boundary, he will likely be branded an apostate by some sole proprietors. But at the same time we have seen certain cases in the past where certain Muslims deemed it necessary to go to court to claim the dead body of a Muslim convert for burial although he had done many of those things outside the boundary. There was such hassle just to ensure that the dead body was buried in the right patch of ground. Even in death you cannot escape.

 Everyone seems to be aware of this problem of intolerance within Islam. If we look into the past, nearly every generation has produced individuals and thinkers who have called for tolerance, understanding and a progressive Islam. But todate no one has stepped forward to boldly grab the bully by the horns. Those who have attempted to do so are labelled as innovators, deviants and even apostates by the ‘sole proprietors’.

 We need thinkers who can easily stand up and spread the wonderful truth about Islam. If one cannot be an active participant then we need action facilitators i.e.. People who can make it easier for others to stand up and proclaim the truth about Islam. We all have a large stake in the religion. It is too precious a commodity to be entrusted in the care of any one group or class of people.