Zainah Anwar on Friday: Making taboo a cherished tradition

Artikel Zainah (NST)



Zainah Anwar on Friday: Making taboo a cherished tradition

16 Jun 2006




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WHAT next on the laundry list of the forbidden? On Tuesday, it was pluralism and liberalism that posed a danger to the faith of Muslims. On Wednesday it was kongsi raya and open house.

Tomorrow will it be the Barisan Nasional multi-ethnic coalition system that is haram because such close co-operation might undermine the faith of the Muslims in Umno.

So what else will those bent on turning this country into a theocratic dictatorship focus their attention on next?

The Ninth Malaysia Plan has been launched. National priorities and challenges have been identified and everyone is rolling up their sleeves to get to work. And what did some of our ulama do?

They met for two days to declare so much of what we love and celebrate about Malaysia and being Malaysian, as threats to the Muslim faith.

What else could be in the 22 resolutions passed by the Majlis Muzakarah of our ulama this week? What among the 11 fatwas passed by the Majlis Ulama Indonesia or from the thousands in the Wahhabi catalogue of fatwas did they decide to adopt?

They say they do this because they love Islam and want to
protect the Muslim faith. But don’t they realise that they are turning Muslims and others against Islam?

What they are preaching is a hate ideology that even their master ideologues in Saudi Arabia are now trying to reverse.

According to the Mufti of Perak Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria, the National Fatwa Council has decided that kongsi raya and open house to celebrate the festivals of others will "damage the faith of Muslims and is tantamount to syirik".

One wonders how the Fatwa Council came to such a conclusion? Did it decide to follow the much quoted fatwa issued by the Wahhabi ulama of Saudi Arabia which forbids the wishing of Merry Christmas to Christians, as such a practice is "more loathsome to God than imbibing liquor, or murder, or fornication".

This reasoning from the teachings of the Wahhabi ideologue Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn al-Qayyim Jawziyya, is the most quoted justification to ban Muslim celebration of other festivals.
That to celebrate with others their religious festivities is tantamount to approving their religious faith, thus constituting syirik.

Another Saudi fatwa cautions that, "the most dangerous form of imitating the unbelievers, the most destructive and the most prevalent among the Muslims, is sharing with the unbelievers their celebrations".

These fatwas are widely circulated within Muslim communities in the West to isolate and "protect" Muslims from the evils of the infidel host society.

Ulama who believe that pluralism and liberalism are a threat to the faith of Muslims, must, of course, believe that celebrating the festivities of Christians, Chinese, Hindus, and Dayaks constitute a liberal action that recognises our pluralist heritage and must therefore be forbidden.

While leaders of all faiths are promoting inter-faith dialogue and understanding in the wake of Islam bashing post-Sept 11, our own ulama who should know better what it me! ans to
live together in peace and harmony within a multi-religious and multi-ethnic state, choose to fuel the fires of hatred and bigotry towards Islam.

It pains me that our religious leaders and Islamist activists, while bemoaning Islamophobia, and declaring that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, themselves utter statements that just feed the prejudices of others against Islam and Muslims.

Pity them who think our faith is so weak that lighting a Christmas tree, donning a floppy red Santa cap, joining the fun and vigour of a lion dance, could lead us up the path of kafirland.

It seems in 2004, ABIM — the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia — asked the Fatwa Council to issue a fatwa and establish clear guidelines on Muslim involvement in activities held during kongsi raya which could be considered as against Islamic tenets.

Some of the activities listed out included Muslim shop assistants wearing Santa C! laus
outfits, Muslim youth taking part in lion dances and Muslim dignitaries lighting up Christmas trees.

In that memorandum, ABIM quoted a hadith that Muslims were allowed to celebrate only two festivals, Hari Raya Puasa and Hari Raya Haji. It questioned on what basis Muslims should be allowed to celebrate the festivities of other communities and urged for a fatwa. So here it is.

Yet again, the question that arises is why, in the whole range of diversity of opinions on any particular issue affecting Muslims, our ulama almost always choose the most conservative, the most intolerant opinion.

What is it about learning to live together, to celebrate our differences and share our festivities, that pose a threat to certain Muslims?

On the range and scale of problems and challenges besetting the Muslim community, how is it that a joyous celebration of our rich multi-ethnic traditions to promote peace and harmony c! ould
become the subject of a fatwa?

What gives me hope is that Malaysians are no longer willing to take this lying down.

What the ideologues of the Islamic state are trying to do is to silence this national conversation by waging a campaign against liberalism and pluralism in the name of Islamic authenticity and purity.

They will not win because again and again Malaysians have shown that we are in the end a pragmatic people who believe in celebrating the diversity and plurality of Malaysian society that has been a blessing to us all. This is a tradition that we must jealously protect and promote.