Malaysian Insight - Stop sending students to study Islam in Middle East, says Muslim scholar (extracts):
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THE habit of sending students to learn about Islam in the Middle East should be stopped as they end up with their beliefs “corrupted” due to the political culture there, said a Muslim scholar.
“We need to differentiate between culture and Islam. This doesn’t mean cultures, including Arab culture, are bad... (but) what is happening these days is highly political,” said Professor Dr Jasser Auda, chairman of London-based think tank Maqasid Institute.
“They come back and cause issues. For instance, those from the US, Canada and European countries, they go and study in the Middle East, and when they return home, they divide the community. They cause all sorts of problems after studying in the Middle East.
“We need to stop the trend of sending people to the Arab world, which is at a really low historical point these days, to learn about Islam,” he said at a round table discussion on “Reclaiming the Centre: The Role of Religion in a Multiracial Society”, organised by the Centre for Nation Building Studies at Institut Darul Ehsan in Shah Alam.
He said many of those who studied Islam in the Middle East were unable to make a distinction between Arab culture and the religion of Islam.
“So, they come back here and they fight a fight that doesn’t exist,” he said, adding that Muslims must return to the origins of Islam and its values.
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On the gradual erosion of Malay culture by an increasing and relentless Arabisation process favoured by some conservative Malays, The Malaysian Digest in March last year (2016) reported:
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“If there are some of you who wish to be an Arab and practise Arab culture, and do not wish to follow our Malay customs and traditions, that is up to you,” the Ruler said, highlighting how these days, Malays preferred using terms like ‘Eid al-Fitr’ instead of ‘Hari Raya’ and iftar instead of ‘buka puasa’.
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Earlier on, the then Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister, Tan Sri Dr Rais Yatim, also spoke about the need for the Malays to put a stop to Arabisation of their own culture. “We are not Arabs,” he argued.
“We need to differentiate between culture and Islam. This doesn’t mean cultures, including Arab culture, are bad... (but) what is happening these days is highly political,” said Professor Dr Jasser Auda, chairman of London-based think tank Maqasid Institute.
“They come back and cause issues. For instance, those from the US, Canada and European countries, they go and study in the Middle East, and when they return home, they divide the community. They cause all sorts of problems after studying in the Middle East.
“We need to stop the trend of sending people to the Arab world, which is at a really low historical point these days, to learn about Islam,” he said at a round table discussion on “Reclaiming the Centre: The Role of Religion in a Multiracial Society”, organised by the Centre for Nation Building Studies at Institut Darul Ehsan in Shah Alam.
He said many of those who studied Islam in the Middle East were unable to make a distinction between Arab culture and the religion of Islam.
“So, they come back here and they fight a fight that doesn’t exist,” he said, adding that Muslims must return to the origins of Islam and its values.
Malays are Malays or at best Malaysians, and not Arabs. That's the problem with our freshly Middle-Eastern educated religious Malays, but who for all their new Arab-proselytisation strangely preferred automobiles to camels, wakakaka.
By the by, there are many 'delightful' use in a camel - the Mufti of Perak is an expert, wakakaka again.
Maybe we will resume the old Malaya-Malaysia Malay culture with its wonderful Mak Yong and Wayang Kulit, Ramvong, etc.
Maybe too we will get back to using Malay words such as:
- Sembahyang instead of solat,
- Hari Raya instead of Eid al-Fitr,
- Buka puasa instead of iftar,
- Selamat Hari Lahir instead of Sanah Helwah,
- etc etc etc.
I have to say the Arabisation of Malays could be traced to Mahathir’s BTN-isation, Ketuanan Melayu-isation and his unilateral arbitrary 929 & 617 Declarations.
The last opened the Islamic Pandora Box forevermore, and at its time of declaration was severely criticised in written form by none other than, wakakaka, Lim Kit Siang, who might have now forgotten all about those Declarations - hmmm, bukan saja Melayu yang mudah lupa, wakakaka.
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cina juga mudah lupa |
What those Declarations did were to confer comfort, encouragement and motivation to the ulamaks and ultra conservative Muslims, which in turn spurred on the Arabisation process of Malays which had already started in 1981.
On the gradual erosion of Malay culture by an increasing and relentless Arabisation process favoured by some conservative Malays, The Malaysian Digest in March last year (2016) reported:
… the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar pointed out that Malays should stop doing so.
The same was also pointed out by forthright social activist, Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, who spoke against 'Arabisation', which she claimed seems to be taking root in Malaysia. “This is just Arabisation. Our culture — it’s colonialism, Arab colonialism,” she remarked.
And may I add, by 'willing captives'.
I have said it many times: as the Malays become more Muslim, they become less Malay.
They are discarding almost everything that they perceive as positing “Malayness” and embraced what they believe to be “Islamic.”
In doing so they are losing their real identity by trying to be what they are not.
There is a real issue pertaining to identity struggle and contestation among the Malays today. In the name of religion, they are questioning not only how they look but their tradition, even folktales and performing arts.
Islamisation is not about Arabisation. You don’t need to be an Arab to be a Muslim.
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I am from Malaysia couldn't get a Jalur Gemilang so I have obtained the Stars & Stripes (closest look-alike) |
But what we are seeing in this country today is the process of Arabisation of the Malays. The Malays have never been as confused in manifesting their true identity as they are now. […]
But propagating a notion of one’s race as superior to others is not acceptable. In short, there is nothing with wrong with manifesting one’s race and at the same time professing the religion. […]
The fault lines were established. It is like telling the world that one needs to “look Muslim” to be one. To “look Muslim” is by imitating the Arabs.
There is a new demand to be “more Muslim”, for example in attire. Gestures, too, matter.
And by being Islamic, one is also judged by the words one uses. It is no more Hari Raya but Eid Mubarak. It is no more Selamat Hari Lahir but Sanah Helwah. The term for the yearly Quran reading competition too has evolved to ensure its purity in Islamic terms: musabaqah, tilawah, ujian. […]
But propagating a notion of one’s race as superior to others is not acceptable. In short, there is nothing with wrong with manifesting one’s race and at the same time professing the religion. […]
The fault lines were established. It is like telling the world that one needs to “look Muslim” to be one. To “look Muslim” is by imitating the Arabs.
There is a new demand to be “more Muslim”, for example in attire. Gestures, too, matter.
And by being Islamic, one is also judged by the words one uses. It is no more Hari Raya but Eid Mubarak. It is no more Selamat Hari Lahir but Sanah Helwah. The term for the yearly Quran reading competition too has evolved to ensure its purity in Islamic terms: musabaqah, tilawah, ujian. […]
Lately the former Information Minister, Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin, in his controversial blog wrote about the danger of Malays unwittingly believing that what is Arab is Islam.