“She advocates LGBT, no way a true Muslim would support her cause!” “These NGO’s recently were in COMANGO to challenge the human rights practice in Malaysia, not a good record!” “One of the NGO listed in the coalition promote religious pluralism, a threat to Islam position in Federal Constitution!” And the list goes on and on. While others put all their efforts to rebuild and reconstruct Malaysia by means of finding the meaning that has been missing so long that we have come to this state of religious and racial tension and instability, some of the others merely preach that because they’re non-Muslim which constantly “go against Islam” in Malaysia, hence it is “not permissible in Islam” to be in a movement or a coalition with them. One of the thing might be about Ambiga being in the newly founded Negara-Ku coalition, but ’ worse’ is that, as they say, is Pertubuhan IKRAM Malaysia (IKRAM), an Islamist NGO Vice President, Zaid Kamaruddin being the chairman of that coalition, simply because of her being in the coalition as well. Well I personally do not deny that Ambiga, formerly held a position in Bar Council, did advocate the right of LGBT, Sisters in Islam (SIS) being almost the same, Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) fighting for secular state and religious pluralism (for that pluralism matter, IRF still don’t have a clear stance as an organization, it’s just the discourse being advanced) and many in there are non-Muslims who could ‘potentially’ ruin the rights of Bumiputera and the position of Islam in Malaysia, to list a few. One of the problem in how the opposition of this idea of coalition failed to tackle – even before Negara-Ku – is that how to fight for a noble cause, believing in the noble spirit of the cause itself; rather than just tirelessly making full examination on who they are. In Islam, a noble cause, especially promoting the good deeds is always welcomed and in fact endorsed as stated in the Koran, Chapter 5, verse 2: ”… And do not let the hatred of a people for having obstructed you from al-Masjid al-Haram lead you to transgress. And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty.” From this verse, we may conclude that whoever they are and whatever they may advocate, do not let our sets of principles – as for Muslims, the Koran and the prophetic tradition – be compromised just because who other people are and what they did. This in turn implies that not only if they fight for wrong cause that we should not support them, it is also about the need to support that in good causes that the advocate as long as it does not contradict with the sets of divine principles written out in both of the sacred documents. Also, from the latter verse 8 of the same chapter: “O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah , witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do.” As all of us know, it is justice that has always and will always be the eternal message of Islam, be it for Muslims or the non-Muslims alike. Now let’s see what is so troubling about Negara-Ku. From its charter itself available online, it clearly states that rebuilding Malaysia is the main concern with the focus of eliminating discriminations and relieving religious and racial tensions with the three documents – Federal Constitution, the Malaysia Agreement and Rukun Negara – being the reference. That simple, nothing suspicious. The most popular argument (but not substantive, though) to oppose this idea is that the same NGO’s participating in Negara-Ku also participated several other coalitions such as COMANGO, Interfaith Council (IFC) and Coalition of Malaysian NGO’s for Free and Fail Elections (Bersih). As mentioned earlier, these NGO’s and some other individuals like Ambiga have their own agenda in other coalition or movement. But as long as principles are concerned, have IKRAM, even once supported the cause of LGBT when it cooperate with these NGOs in Bersih? Did it ever join the fight to abolish the Bumiputera’s right and the position of Islam as written in the Federal Constitution when it was in Bersih? Have IKRAM ever preached that Malaysia should adopt pluralism just to please IRF, SIS and others in Gerakan Bertindak Malaysia? Even when GBM released a statement on Bible seizure in Selangor, IKRAM separately released its own statement for that JAIS action. (for the matter of IKRAM being listed in the list of NGO’s in the GBM statement, IKRAM has released a statement to explain that IKRAM is not of the agreeing NGO). The point is that we don’t have to support a cause that is against our sets of principles. Yet it seems very easy to determine who are “musuh Islam” when the Muslims themselves don’t necessarily show good example in governance and trustworthiness! That is why, as Islam itself promotes, we as Muslims should support causes that lead to ’islah’ (reform) and to fight against injustice; be it from political parties or non-political ones. Everyone can preach how perfect Islam is when its eternal message is justice and blessing or ‘rahmah’ to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. But where are the Muslims when discrimination in the name of religions and race supremacy took place? When we criticize a Bumiputera for cronyism, we don’t reject the idea of ‘sedekah’; it’s the unfair favoritism that we fight against, be it the Muslim crony or the non-Muslim ones! Therefore, it is time for whoever preaches Islam engage with whomever fight for justice and harmonious living if we are to adhere to the eternal message of Islam brought about by Allah from His Book and the prophetic tradition. As day goes by, we can see how Malaysia is going through suffering from tensions and discriminations in all forms possible. It is time for all of us to unite, not only among Muslims, but also with all people who strive for better Malaysia. We have many reasons to fight for the same cause, why do we have to suffer ourselves from merely finding differences among us? We don’t have time now to ridiculously seek for other parties’ mistakes meticulously. We have to work now for the sake of propagation of the true message of Islam itself. Wan Salman Wan Sallam
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 03:31:58 +0000
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