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Islam is not under attack: Umno MP
Pauline Puah
KUALA LUMPUR: The use of power and compulsion will
not help to resolve controversial religious issues,
outspoken Umno
parliamentarian Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has said.
"Power, force and compulsion solve nothing ... You
can put them (apostates) in jail. But (as to) the
matter of faith
and belief, how do you change them?" he asked at a
forum organised by the Human Rights Commission of
Malaysia
(Suhakam) in conjunction with Malaysian Human Rights
Day on Saturday.
The Kota Baru member of Parliament, who was a
speaker at the Article 11 forum on constitutional
rights disrupted by a
group of 500 protesters in May, started by voicing
his concerns over recent developments on religious
issues in the
country.
In his speech entitled "Freedom of Religion and the
Federal Constitution", he took a swipe at certain
quarters,
including several Muslim lawyers, who claimed that
Islam is under attack.
"Islam is not under attack. It is your warped minds
under attack," he said to a round of applause.
Citing two high-profile court cases - that of Lina
Joy and S. Shamala - Zaid, a lawyer himself, said
these cases
should be treated merely as legal situations.
"We can't talk about it because God will punish her
(Lina Joy)? What's the problem? She's not a Muslim
anymore, so God
will punish her surely?
"But do we play God's role now? How do you know God
won't forgive her? How do you know?" he asked the
silent floor.
"I thought she just wanted to get her ID (identity
card) changed. So let the courts decide it. There is
no need to say
Islam is under attack," Zaid said, thumping the
rostrum.
Lina Joy, a Muslim who "converted" to Christianity,
had appealed to remove the word "Islam" from her
identity card,
sparking wide debate on religious freedom in the
country.
Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar who held a watching brief
for the Bar Council in her case, recently received
death threats
for voicing his legal opinions on the issue.
Shamala, a Hindu mother, is asking the court to
declare that her two sons' conversion to Islam by
her estranged Muslim
convert husband Dr M. Jeyaganesh, is invalid. The
case was adjourned in the Court of Appeal in July,
pending the
Federal Court's decision in the Lina Joy case.
Zaid said that under Islamic teaching, if one is
seen as having strayed from the true path, greater
mercy and
understanding should be accorded to him.
"I thought we should show more mercy in cases like
these? ... We should understand why they want to do
that.
"(But) no, you can't do that because you have power
... What's the problem in these so-called issues
confronting
ummah?" he asked.
Zaid said Muslims should have more confidence in a
religion which is heavily supported by the state.
"We should be confident enough. There should be no
fear. For God's sake, the civil court is not our
enemy. Our
judicial system has upheld the rule of law."
He described his fellow parliamentarians as showing
"stupidity" by arguing that the absence of rules on
apostasy would
open the floodgates to Muslims becoming apostates.
"That's stupidity. Do we not give our religion more
respect and recognition? Do we not shame ourselves
by making such
statements, and show that we have no confidence in
the intrinsic worth of our religion?"
Zaid said the government should explain religious
issues to ordinary people to avoid misunderstanding
and unnecessary
tension.
He also attributed the tensions that have arisen to
politicians who use the religious card to gain
political mileage.
"No one (politicians) wants to explain religious
issues because there's a political risk there ... It
is easy to get
instant recognition and support when you raise
religious and racial issues."
Zaid urged the government to maintain the integrity
and purity of Islam by allowing discussion.
Another speaker at the forum chaired by Suhakam
commissioner Datuk Michael Yeoh was renowned
Afghan-born scholar,
Mohamad Hashim Kamali, a professor at the
International Islamic University.
Answering a question from the floor, Mohd Hashim
said that if the purpose is to advocate good,
non-Muslims should be
allowed to discuss and question Islam.
Noting that Islam has a long history of recognising
other religions and that interfaith dialogue was
thus Islamic in
itself, he said Muslims should not monopolise and
isolate the religion.
Earlier in his speech on "Human Rights from an
Islamic Perspective", Mohd Hashim said human rights
elements are
enshrined in Islamic holy texts, particularly the
Quran.
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