Islamic push for Malaysian moderation

Asia Times Online
Jun 7, 2005

Islamic push for Malaysian moderation
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK - Despite its location on the margins of the Islamic world, Malaysia is coming out well ahead of other Muslim countries on the pivotal question of how to redeem the battered image of Islam and its followers.

Such a rise in significance over other Islamic centers of gravity, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Iran in the Middle East or Pakistan in South Asia, stems from moves underway by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to give itself a face-lift.

The OIC's interest in Malaysia to help push through the sweeping reforms it has in mind was confirmed during a recently concluded meeting in Pakistan. During that gathering, from May 28-29, the moderate ideals of Islam Hadhari being advocated by Malaysian Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi were embraced as the way forward.

The OIC wants Islam Hadhari, or civilizational Islam, to be a central pillar in the new look it is seeking for itself, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said recently.

Other changes in the cards, according to the minister, are a new name and charter for this premier Islamic body that reflects the views of the world's Muslims.

Calls for such reform originated during the last OIC summit hosted by Malaysia in October 2003. That was the first gathering of the 57-member body since September 11, 2001, which gave rise to a global image of Muslims as prone to violence and supporting terrorism.

The recommendations made by Islamic experts during the recent meeting in Pakistan are to be fine-tuned at a gathering of OIC foreign ministers in Yemen in July. They will then be tabled at a special summit of Muslim leaders to be held in Mecca toward the end of the year.

Malaysia's appeal for a beleaguered organization such as the OIC, often criticized as being long on talk but short on concrete action, also stems from other factors that make the nation stand out in the Islamic world. It is an economic success story where modernity and multiculturalism have been given room to flower rather than been crushed by religious extremists.

But a political minefield awaits the OIC in the journey ahead, given the ideas that make up the core of Islam Hadhari the Malaysian premier is advocating. They espouse an Islam that accepts differences, is comfortable with religious pluralism, and is open to democratic rights.

Among the 10 principles that frame this vision are those that stress a "free and independent people", a "just and trustworthy government" and "protection of the rights of minority groups and women", wrote Mohamed Sharif Bashir of the Islamic University of Malaysia on IslamOnline, an Internet magazine.

Such values, however, are woefully absent across much of the Muslim world. These countries, in fact, are notorious for their human-rights violations, and their leaders often dominate the rogues' gallery of dictators, autocrats and oppressive monarchies.

Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov is the latest among such strongmen to capture the headlines of the world's media. His brutal crackdown of protesters in May mirrored a pattern of suppression common in other Islamic countries where the victims were also Muslims. According to media reports, hundreds of people were killed in that Central Asian republic when government troops fired at the demonstrators.

Karimov's Uzbekistan has also been known for the widespread torture of Muslims arrested on charges of Islamic "extremism" and "fundamentalism", New York-based global rights body Human Rights Watch stated. The forms of torture have ranged from beatings, burnings and asphyxiation to a detainee being immersed in boiling water.

In late May, another human-rights champion, Amnesty International, lay bare the extremism and abuse that prevails in Muslim countries such as Egypt, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria.

"Human-rights abuses flourish most brutally in the absence of democracy, and unfortunately, the record of Muslim countries in political freedom is pretty dismal," Irfan Husain wrote in a commentary that appeared last week in the Dubai-based Khaleej Times.

A United Nations report in April about the lack of political reform in the Arab world was as caustic, arguing that the region could be shattered by violence and social upheaval if democracy was further denied to the people.

"Throughout the [Arab] region, the concentration of power in the hands of the executive, be it a monarchy, military dictatorship or a civilian president elected without competition, has created a kind of political 'black hole' at the center of Arab political life," stated the UN report, "Arab Human Development Report 2004".

The OIC's quest to transform itself as an advocate of Islam Hadhari fits in with the UN report's call for change. More importantly, it reveals a belated commitment to give a due place to citizens in the Muslim world rather than maintain the habit of placating their governments.

Such a move would make this pan-Muslim body sound more credible when it articulates its mission to protect the interest of the ummah, or the people who make up the global Islamic community.

How far the OIC gets on this path will be seen later this year when it finally unveils its version of Islam Hadhari at the summit to be held in Islam's birthplace. A watered-down version to satisfy the despots and the autocrats in the Muslim world would relegate the OIC's reforms to mere cosmetic changes.

Were that to happen, the OIC will have a list of countries that help perpetuate the image of the Muslim world as prone to terrorism, religious extremism and tyranny. Malaysia, where 60% of the country's 25 million people are Muslim, will not be among them.

(Inter Press Service)

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