FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

S. M. IBRAHIM    

Malaysia's fly In The Ointment  

Two of the world's tallest buildings are now in Kuala Lumpur. Even street vendors use microwave and fibre optic linked cellular telephones. Malaysian automobiles are penetrating world markets.

Borrowing the glamour of this economic success, Malaysia is also touted as a model Islamic nation by the local Islamicists. But the truth is that the Islamicists are riding on the success created by non Muslim Chinese and Indians and Muslim Malays who have all worked hard to create a successful economy

The ulema (scholars) and Islamic intellectuals have contributed nothing at all - either to the economy or to Islam.

There is not even one Malaysian ulema or Islamic intellectual who can be identified with achieving anything for their country. On the contrary they are causing considerable damage.

The western educated Islamic intellectuals have been reduced to merely repackaging and putting Arabic names to western ideas and concepts and re-presenting them as "Islamic".

If it is Arabic it must be closer to Islam! Hence we have Islamic pawn shops, Islamic hospitals, Islamic stock markets and even Islamic English.

On the other hand, the hardcore orthodox ulema are simply a group of people who cannot read or understand any language other than their own dialect and perhaps some Arabic.

They do not read journals, international magazines, new books or even old books. They only know a narrow medieval version of Arabic/ Persian culture (most of it quite barbaric) which they somehow feel obliged to call "Islam".

When tested against the magnificent truth of the Quran, the ridiculous nature of the ulema becomes clearly visible. Some clear examples are provided here.

The main functions performed by the ulema in Malaysia can be classified into the following three parts:

1. Performing prayers at official functions, weddings etc. Make magic charms, potions (labeled as "Islamic medicine"), give talks on TV, radio etc.

2. Once in a while deviate from their own flock and establish strange religious cults.

3. To go after those deviants mentioned above, straighten them out and bring them back to making magic potions and delivering speeches about "Islam".

Lately, the ulema have been facing an uphill task because by their own reckoning, there are now about 50 deviationist ulema who have set up strange "tareqat" and other cults in Malaysia. They say that all these cults need to have their heads straightened out.

How do they classify these deviationalists? Well there have been some technical difficulties here. Previously anyone with a different viewpoint was labeled "un-Islamic". But after some arguments to the Shias and also to those who uphold the Quran
(the ulema do not uphold the Quran) they have retreated a few steps. Now anyone who disagrees with them is labeled as un-"ahlul sunnah wal jamaah."
 

By default they have conceded their religion from Islam to "ahlul sunnah wal jamaah" - it being the majority sect in Malaysia.

Therefore in Malaysia, Islam notwithstanding - either you are an "ahlul sunnah wal jamaah" or you are not!

To straighten out those who deviate from "Ahlul sunnah wal jamaah" (not Islam) the ulema have proposed setting up "Pusat Pemulihan Aqidah" or "Faith Reformation Centres" or in lay terms "Centre to Straighten Your Head".

Once arrested, any deviant will be locked up in these "head straightening" centres for a minimum period of six months. They will be exposed to long lectures and "brainwashing" to return to the ridiculous beliefs of the ulema.

Since the normal due process of law will naturally make such "kangaroo" justice fall flat on its face, the ulema have set up the National Fatwa Council.

The National Fatwa Council is populated by ulema with different turbans. All they have to do is declare someone deviant without having to call for his defense. (This has already happened in Malaysia). That person is then blacklisted as a deviant and can then be hauled away to the proposed "head straightening centres".

This type of behavior by the ulema in Malaysia has no precedent even in the so called "sahih hadith" of Bukhari. The blacklisting of people based on generalized fatwas is closer to the Nazi Gestapo or the Grandfather Laws of the old days in the United States. Some say the National Fatwa Council cannot be sued in any court of law other that the Shariah Court - which is also populated by the same turbans.

This then puts the ulema in Malaysia above the level of the Sultans and hereditary Rulers of the Malay states, because even the royalty recently had their sacrosanct immunity removed. This then is Malaysia's fly in the ointment. Despite all the economic and technological advancement, the government of the most enlightened Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is allowing comedians - who are as far from the Quranic Truth as the North pole is from the South - to take this beautiful land of Malaysia back into the Stone Age.

There is one particularly famous ulema in Malaysia who appears regularly on government TV and is also provided with a weekly column in the country's largest circulation Malay daily.

Among his pronouncements in his half page column was that jungle fowl, mousedeer and redfish possess magical powers, which can harm fishing enthusiasts and hunters.

Of course the "antidote" for all this magic is easily available from him at his own "Islamic clinic". Most amazingly this ulema enjoys the patronage of the Malay elite, top members of the Civil Service, politician and corporate figures.

He also appears on government owned TV stations where he lectures in Islam. ln a recent broadcast he suggested that people who believe in the Quran alone but refuse to believe in the things he believes should be declared apostates and put to death. An acute symptom of self-preservation by a witch doctor.

At his well-known "Islamic clinic" near Kuala Lumpur he prescribes potions and "holy water" to heal any and all kinds of sicknesses. He is reported to control a genie (jinn). I do not know how much smoke is generated each time the genie comes out of the bottle!

Among his cures for children with persistent fever is to spit water from his mouth all over the child while holding the child in an open doorway facing Mecca!

Although this ulema's magic medicine is sought after even by top members of the Malay Civil Service, it is interesting to note that the good witch doctor himself has been recently admitted into a proper hospital for diabetes and heart trouble!

To top it all, this ulema is also a fully-fledged professor at a major Malaysian university.
One wonders how the university academically accredits magical powers of mousedeer and jungle fowl!

Since the Prime Minister of Malaysia always seems to be three steps ahead of everyone else I hope he and his deputy will have some concrete long term plans to uplift this pathetic state of affairs of the ulema and the Islamic intellectuals in Malaysia.

Perhaps the Prime Minister's recent challenge to scholars, academicians and experts to develop themselves into world class intellectuals is a first step in the right direction.

The ulema and the Muslim intellectuals are the fly in the ointment in Malaysia. Malaysia is moving ahead by leaps and bounds very simply because Malaysia is an open, free market economy. What does this mean? This simply means that Malaysia must compete to survive. This is what the Malaysian people have managed to learn and do quite successfully.

Many Islamic and Third World nations come to Malaysia to see what our magic is. The magic very simply is that you either compete or you get left behind.

This is where the ulema have already been left behind. The funny thing is that they are stuck in a 1200-year-old Persian/Arabic time warp, which has no significance to a modern world. The worst thing is that this time warp is based not on the perfect, infallible
teachings of the Quran but simply on fabricated hadith, concocted lies and false ideas - all of them mischievously attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and to Islam.

If the ulema do not realize this and insist on upholding falsehood, they will go in the same way as the dinosaurs. The ulema have survived thus far in the Islamic world because the Islamic world can proudly boast of the lowest literacy levels in the world. In other words no one is able to check the ulema. In the land of the blind, the one eyed ulema is king.

The ulema know this very well. In Malaysia they can maintain their position only by convincing people about the magical powers of mousedeer and jungle fowl. Unfortunately even top members of the Malay Civil Service are gullible enough to believe them. I hope people will come to their senses soon.