PAS tells us to accept Islamic State
The political party PAS asks us to accept an Islamic state with the following justification:
“since non-Malays accepted capitalism, socialism and other Western ideologies, there was no reason why they could not accept the concept of an Islamic state” - PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang
One thing that has annoyed me for a very long time with statements such as this one is the intentional emphasis on the importance of pitting Islam against the West, and thus making it seem that nothing else is important enough to acknowledge existing. The truth is there is so much more then Islam and the West. There is South Asia, East Asia, South America, Asian Pacific Islands and of course, pre-colononization cultures in the Western lands - all of whose cultural richness and religious tolerance puts those pandering the “Islam vs West” meme to shame.
Sure, the Western civilization has made great progress. And so did the Muslim civilization several hundred years ago. But there are also many other civilizations that have made substantial and impressive progress in the recent and far past. The Chinese civilization has lasted six millenia, and many great advances in all fields were made in those 6000 years! The Indians have had their own plethora of strong and powerful non-Islamic civilizations, as have the South-East Asians, the Japanese, the Egyptians, the South Americans.
And that was in the past. Right here and right now, there are many cultural civilizations that are sufficiently distinct from “The West” and from “Islam”. India is a beautiful fusion of modern liberal democracy and its ancient traditions. China is embracing capitalism so rapidly that many are asking the Chinese to slow down. The Japanese have embraced liberalism in some aspects of their culture (sexuality is most apparent) but are closed in other forms (Japanese institutions can certainly benefit from a culture of strong transparency). These are some examples but many others surely and definitely exist.
Our world is not just made up of “The West” and “Islam”. There are a great number of cultures out there and hearing the phrase “The West vs Islam” is surely an insult to the rest of us, as it is to Westerners and Muslims (most of which would love to live in peace, have kids, have a good career and live the good life).
That was one rant. Here comes a second.
There is an old Malay saying: “Katak di bawah tempurung“. What this translates to is that a person who lives in a shell misses out seeing the world and is therefore paralyzed in their perspectives. Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang reminds me of such a katak:
Does he not see that an overwhelming number of Islamic states in the world are poor, corrupt and cruel?
Does he not see that while rest of the world lives in the 21st century, the Islamic states from the Middle Eastern countries are still stuck in the 19th century as their women can’t even drive cars, much less vote?
Does he read the Interweb and miss the many stories of “honor killings” and women being whipped by the government because they were raped?
Does he not see that there has not been a single Islamic state with continuously held democratic elections since the 1940’s (I purposely exclude Malaysia from this list as we are not an Islamic country as our constitution explicitly states that we are secular)?
Does he not see that the most corrupt countries in the world right now are Islamic countries?
Does he not see that Islamic states tend to have the most violent history in its treatment of non Muslims?
Does he not see that such Islamic states even treat their fellow Muslim brothers badly because their brothers happen to follow a different sect of Islam?
Does he not see that nobody wants to live in Terengganu and Kelantan because their laws infringe on the rights of non-Muslims?
Does he not see all of this? Is he blind?
I can never accept his call to live in an Islamic state because I don’t see a single example where such a state has been prosperous and equal in its treatment to non Muslims. All I see are strong counter examples. I am a non Muslim and will probably remain so for rest of my life. So are 40% other Malaysians and I strongly believe they share my feelings and my rejection to his call to live in an Islamic state.
We want to live in peace with people from all religions. We want to practise our culture and religion without any imposition. We want to have kids and offer them the very same freedoms we have enjoyed. We want to put bread on our table without having to worry about rent seeking and corrupt behaviour. We want grow old with the satisfaction of having have led a good life.
No Islamic state offers this today and we will not risk our lives and our futures in experimenting setting up such a state in Malaysia when overwhelming evidence points out that such a state will fail in providing us the basic rights of pursuing liberty and happiness.