Can Southeast Asian Muslims spearhead interfaith dialog?
Can Southeast Asian Muslims spearhead interfaith dialog?
Nazry Bahrawi, Singapore
When Australian-based Muslim scholar Prof. Abdullah Saaed
delivered a series of lectures in Singapore last month, he
verbalized an important point, which challenges the fallacy that
Muslims are a monolithic bunch, when he rightly pointed out that
what is considered Islamic changes depending on the contemporary
ideas and values subscribed to by a specific group of Muslims in
a certain context.
A meeting of minds recently between leading regional Muslim
leaders and thinkers in Jakarta lends credence to Prof. Saeed's
astute observation. Jointly organized by the International Centre
for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) and the European Union (EU),
participants in the two-day seminar spoke out against equating
the notion of da'wah to aggressive Islamic proselytization
efforts in light of current global conditions where increased
religious militancy among Muslims is often misconstrued as being
sanctioned theologically.
Instead, Muslim scholars at the seminar have come to a
resounding consensus that the propagation of Islamic teachings
should be centered on shared values between different faith
communities, and thereby form the basis for constructive inter-
religious dialog.
Herein lies an affirmative trend on the uptake. In the spirit
of contextualizing Islamic teachings, the move towards
establishing an inclusive and value-centric worldview is gaining
currency amongst contemporary Muslim leaders in Southeast Asia.
In parts of the region, manifestations of this inclusive Muslim
worldview have given birth to some encouraging pragmatic
initiatives.
In Singapore where Muslims make up a sizable minority
community, the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) has been
holding monthly closed-door sessions with key members of
Singaporean society, regardless of race or religion. They
deliberate upon pertinent issues like increased religiosity and
secularism. Volunteers at Darul Arqam Singapore, a non-profit
outfit that looks after the welfare of new Muslims, have also
been proactive in organizing a series of exchange programs with
members of the Archdiocese Catholic Methodist Association (ACMA)
and the Buddhist Lodge in a bid to better understand their
counterparts.
Even non-Muslim institutions are getting into the act. Think-
tank bodies like the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and the
Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS) have held seminars
that feature renowned international Muslim scholars like US-based
Prof. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi' and Malaysia's Chandra Muzaffar, both of
whom spearheaded lively discussions with participants on how
Muslims can live amicably alongside practitioners of other faiths
in contemporary times.
On the regional front, delegates to the Regional Islamic
Da'wah Council of South East Asia and the Pacific (RISEAP) at its
12th General Assembly held in Sarawak earlier this year,
unanimously acknowledged that inter-faith dialogs were important
platforms that could improve relations between different faith
communities in their respective countries.
Optimistic developments are also taking place across the
causeway in Malaysia where Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who
also chairs the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference
(OIC), encouragingly exemplified the true spirit of religious
harmony when he delivered an emotional speech urging Muslims and
Christians to "work together for the sake of peace and justice".
Badawi made the speech during a week-long conference held by the
World Council of Churches in Kuala Lumpur just days before
officially opening the RISEAP conference, despite dissenting
voices from conservative factions within the Muslim community.
Despite these positive developments, the violent social unrest
in Southern Thailand indicates that things are not all hunky-dory
yet in the Malay Archipelago. Before inter-religious initiatives
can enhance ethnic and religious harmony though, such outstanding
sensitive issues, arising from tense socio-political relations in
parts of Southeast Asia, need to be given much more serious
attention from members of ASEAN. Once such bread-and-butter
concerns have been addressed and resolved, the presence of a
vibrant interfaith culture could ideally transform Southeast Asia
into a model region where diversity is respectfully acknowledged
and commonalities widely celebrated.
The writer is the managing editor of two Muslim magazines
published in Singapore.