With National Day celebrations around the corner, Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) has again warned of creeping liberalism and pluralism that it claims would threaten Malaysia in the future.

The group’s central committee member Mohd Hazizi Abd Rahman said these ideologies have yet to take hold among Muslims, but claims it is spreading slowly and quietly, especially among the youths.

Hazizi (left) defined liberalism as the belief that individual freedoms take precedence over both Islamic religious requirements (syarak) and government control, and since there are no limits to individual desires, he said, it would be damaging to the identity of Muslims.

“When individual desires take precedence over syarak and government control, then no individual can be controlled.

“Individual freedoms will be used to justify whatever opinion or behaviour. This is what is going to damage a nation,” Hazizi said in an interview with the NGO’s official mouthpiece Ismaweb, which was published yesterday in conjunction with the coming National Day.

The interview was done in the context of Isma’s National Day theme last year, which was 'True independence is achieved when Islam is fully implemented', and how can it be implemented in Malaysia.

Hazizi painted an example of a Muslim who consumes alcoholic drinks in public while justifying it as an exercise of individual freedom, and no action is taken against him.

This ,he argued ,would encourage other Muslims to follow suit, to the point where syarak is no longer observed.

“Then what would become of Muslims? Muslims would only be Muslims in name, but their lifestyle is not tied to syarak’s requirements at all because of lack of enforcement.

“In the end we would lose our identity; there is no barrier to defend Islam’s sovereignty and foreign powers will interfere (with our affairs),” he said.

'Western influence bad'

Hazizi added that “independence of soul and thought” is a prerequisite to an independent nation, and a country that is influenced by foreign thinking, especially from the West, will not stay independent.

“In some countries, the country is owned by the people but is ruled by foreign powers such as having to submit to foreign capitalists. That doesn’t give any real meaning to the independence.”

The ustaz also views Malaysia as an imperfect Islamic country that already implements some of the religion’s obligations, and opined that syariat can be achieved in Malaysia despite being having  a multi-cultural society.

However, he said Malaysians are too caught up with the hudud issue whenever the matter is raised, although hudud has many technical requirements before being  implemented.

He added that Muslims have a right to implement Islam’s requirements in Malaysia, and he believed that non-Muslims would accept this if given an opportunity to learn and appreciate the religion.

He says this is especially since syariat only affects non-Muslims in areas of criminal law and social law (muamalat).

He pointed out that non-Muslims already accept the Islamic banking system, which is part of muamalat.

“If Muslims fulfil syariat fully, then non-Muslim citizens would see the changes and I’m sure syariat’s suitability is timeless. I’m sure they will accept it because it’s good for them,” he said.