Last Friday, a Federal Territories mosque went overboard once again during the Friday sermon. The content of the sermon was reported by Malaysiakini which highlighted Jakim’s questionable methods that seemingly favour religious bigotry and inability to prioritize pressing issues or even put forth universal values that are in line with Islamic beliefs.
Jakim has a history of singling out so-called ‘enemies of Islam’ and demonizing those who disagree with them. Once again, choosing not to address abuse of power or kleptocracy; Jakim had chosen to demonize “loud” women instead; according to Jakim, championing gender equality and women’s rights were viewed as unnecessary.
According to the government institution, opinionated women were enemies of Islam because raising (what Jakim perceives as) sensitive issues such as encouraging gender equality and questioning the “hukum” of wearing the hijab, will tarnish Islam. The text also claimed that these views and opinions were heavily influenced by Western anti-Islam propaganda. Never mind if some of these women have displayed an impressive knowledge of Islam – history as well as values mentioned in both Quran and Hadith, harsh interpretations of Jakim’s brand of Islam simply does not favour rational discourse.
But what needs to be addressed is how government sanctioned platforms that could have been used to preach tolerance, love and respect are instead being used to spread evil gospels that preach hatred and overzealous bigotry.
Who can forget; in 2014, Jakim had preposterously claimed that ‘Muslims in Malaysia will always be under siege’ and were tricked by the Jews and the Christians, who were often identified using the name “Nasrani” (an Arabic form of the word “Nazarene” which originally referred to a sect of Christianity, but has become a general term for Christians).
These hate filled sermons often caution that there are some Muslims (the liberals, the pluralist and the secularists) who were working together with the Christians, the communists and the Jews to destroy the walls that have stood to protect our sovereignty. Spreading these lies signaled the beginnings of Jakim’s pattern of bigotry that present day Malaysians have become familiar with. I must reinterate that muslims in Malaysia are not under sieged – never have been and never will be, because of what is already enshrined in our Federal Constitution.
For years, Jakim had magnificently coined the term ‘enemies of Islam’ which has become an ‘umbrella boogeyman’ used to refer so-called deviants and apostates of Islam. This act of name calling and pitting us against one another is downright evil and destructive.
If Jakim truly claims that its brand of Islam is one that promotes tolerance and should be seen as a blessing to all (rahmatan lil ‘alamin), it should engage in rational discourse and more so, welcome these brave women for championing these issues. Why not take additional steps to address these issues and formulate solutions – wouldn’t taking such an approach be more advantageous to a multicultural society like ours?
The cure for ignorance is to question and Prophet Muhammad (peach be upon him) molded a society that highly regarded equality, respect and accepted diversity; “A true believer does not taunt or curse or abuse or talk indecently”( Riwayat At-Tarmidhi) and this is something that every Malaysian Muslims, especially Jakim, should live by.