Observers of Malaysian politics would have noticed that the political and cultural waters of the country have recently been stirred up by what might appear as a 'minor' debacle of sorts.

As the Islamisation race heats up all over again and both government and opposition parties claim that theirs is the only right and proper interpretation of Islam, there have been a few voices from the margins calling for a more systematic, rational and critical analysis of where the Islamisation race will take us in the future.

Groups like Sisters in Islam (SIS) and various human rights NGOs have objected to the cavalier way in which Islam has been instrumentally employed by political groupings in the country. But an even more interesting development of late has been the emergence of other voices from outside the Malay-Muslim community.

One of the very few non-Muslim academics who has written and spoken at length about the state of Islam in Malaysia is Dr Patricia Martinez of University Malaya.

For those not in the know, Martinez happens to be one of the few non-Malay and non-Muslim academics with a background in Islamic studies and comparative religion. This in itself is a phenomenon in this country of ours, where despite efforts to the contrary, actual cross-cultural and inter-religious understanding is very much thin on the ground.

That a non-Malay and non-Muslim would go out of her way to learn about Islam in order to write and teach about it from an objective, non-partisan angle is a rarity that this society should applaud and support above all else.

(One can only hope that in the future such gestures would be reciprocated and that more Muslims in this country would read more about other religions with an open mind in order to have a better understanding of others and themselves.)

Cowardly attack

Martinez also made headlines recently when she wrote about the state's own Islamisation policies and the heavily criticised booklet Malaysia as an Islamic State (which was subsequently withdrawn). (1)

She was one of the few Malaysian academics who actually used her own academic knowledge and expertise and put it into practice by dissecting what was, in the end, a poorly thought-out and ill-conceived document which did more harm than good to the understanding of Islam in the country.

But Martinez's efforts have not been to the liking of everyone. In the weeks that followed, she received many insulting e-mails and remarks from certain quarters that were not all happy with the fact that a non-Malay and a non-Muslim (and a woman on top of that) had the gall to take up the thorny question of political religion and bring it out into the open.

What is more, many of those who objected to her comments did so on the grounds that she was a non-Muslim, and was therefore not 'qualified enough' to speak about Islam or Muslim concerns.

Then came the revelation that a scandalous article had been distributed on various websites (not malaysiakini - some linked to the opposition - which carried her name). Martinez has vociferously denied any involvement with the article concerned, and has even lodged a police report to clear her name and to expose the culprits behind the cowardly attack on her and her career.

That such devious tactics could be employed by those who felt that their religious identity was being 'threatened' by the writings and ideas of a single non-Muslim is in itself an indication of the state of affairs in this country today.

Ethno-religious ghettos

As the Islamisation race intensifies, it has merely led to the strengthening of inter-religious boundaries and growing apprehension and fear among some quarters. Increasingly, those of the Islamist camp feel that their privileged territory is being encroached upon and that others are now claiming the same right to speak about a topic which they felt was exclusively theirs and theirs alone.

That a non-Muslim academic like Martinez can come under attack and harassment from these self appointed 'defenders of the faith' is typical of the mind set that has developed in this country, in all religious groupings and communities.

It shows that despite decades of efforts towards nation-building, we Malaysians still live in our own ethno-religious ghettos and that we are unable and unwilling to accept the ideas and opinions of others.

Trapped as we are in the logic of political correctness that has gone off the rails, some Malaysians now feel that to show respect and deference to other religions and belief systems means not questioning anything that happens in the name of other religions.

This situation is not new or unique to Malaysia. In the West, the same preoccupations have come to the fore and now local government authorities find themselves unable to intervene in cases of domestic violence when it involves non-European ethic minorities, simply because the latter claim that routinised domestic violence happens to be part of their traditional culture and way of life.

In the Malaysian context this effectively means that many politically-correct non-Muslims now feel that they do not have the right to object to many of the controversial (and some downright repugnant) practices among Muslims (many of which have no basis in Islam, it ought to be pointed out) on the grounds that they must respect the rights of Muslims to be Muslims.

In the long run this simply means that all of us - regardless of which religious group we may belong to - will be robbed of the right to speak about others because we feel the need to show respect to their sensitivities and sensibilities.

Both Muslims and non-Muslims will understandably be worried about these developments as they would suggest that religion, like race and ethnicity, has once again become a taboo subject that outsiders can no longer touch upon.

But non-Muslims must remember that they are not the only ones who are being excluded from the arena of debate and discussion. As far back as the beginning of the 20th century, scores of Malay-Muslim reformers and modernists like Syed Sheik al-Hadi were also attacked by the conservative Ulama (religious scholars) for their critical ideas which were thought of as 'heretical' and 'offensive' to Islam.

The heretic within

The polemics and debates that we see today are not new to Malaysia or the Malay archipelago. As far back as the 19th century, successive waves of Malay-Muslim and Peranakan Muslim reformers and modernists were at the forefront of the war of words between the reformists and the traditional Ulama.

These modernists were the first generation of internal critics who attempted to reform the practice, meaning and content of Islam from within. But they were heavily criticised by the Ulama and their adorning followers on the grounds that such modernisation and reform was tantamount to an assault on the spirit of Islam itself. One of the most famous among the reformers was Syed Sheikh al-Hadi. (2)

Syed Sheikh al-Hadi was one of the few Peranakan Muslims who dared to confront the Ulama institution head-on. A scholar (though not an Ulama) himself, he was a pioneer in modern Malayan-Muslim education, the Malay press and author of the highly acclaimed Hikayat Faridah Hanum - which has to be the first proto-feminist Malay novel in the history of modern Malay literature.

But like the scholars of today, al-Hadi also believed that Islam was too important to be left to the Ulama and their lieutenants alone. He called from the democratisation and popularisation of Malay-Muslim education and insisted on his right to question the Ulama's own interpretation of Islam.

For his efforts, he was branded a 'modernist', 'secularist', 'heretic' and innovator who was out to destroy the purity of the religion and corrupt the morals of the believers. The Ulama even went as far as claiming that his writings were seditious and pornographic, and called for them to be banned in the Malay Sultanates.

Islam's universalism

Ironically today, it is a non-Malay and a non-Muslim who shares the same fate as Syed Sheikh al-Hadi and the Kaum Muda reformers of the 1920s and 1930s. But if there is one thing that the past has taught us, it is that no religion in this world should ever be left to a handful of self-proclaimed 'defenders' of the faith.

If Islam is to be accepted as one of the dominant faiths in Malaysia, it has to become part of the common national narrative of the nation as a whole. This means that Malaysians in general must feel that they have the right to speak about it, openly and critically, whatever their ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds may be.

It is that which will make Islam part of the collective identity of Malaysians, even if not all of us happen to be Muslims. What is more, it will also underscore the fact that the universalism of Islam transcends the limited and finite confines of the Muslim community itself.

For these reasons, Dr Martinez deserves our understanding and support more than ever. In her own small way, she has helped to make Islam a subject of common concern for all and by doing so, she has shown that the great religion of Islam is too important to be left to Muslims alone.

Endnotes:

(1) See: Malaysia Adalah Sebuah Negara Islam, by Dato' Wan Zahidi Wan Teh. Jabatan Hal Ehwal Khas, Kementerian Penerangan Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, 2001. The author was formerly a lecturer at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) and graduated from the Al-Azhar University of Cairo, Egypt.

(2) Thus far the best book which covers the life and times of Syed Sheikh al-Hadi is The Real Cry of Syed Shaykh al-Hady, edited by Alijah Gordon and published by the Malaysian Sociological Research Institute (MSRI). Kuala Lumpur, 1999.

The book contains extracts from many of Syed Sheik al-Hadi's speeches, where he openly attacks the traditional Ulama for their excessive dogmatism and obscurantism, and their unwillingness to open the doors of ijtihad (interpretation) that would lead to an opening up of the Muslim mind from within.