Moderates, conservatives dispute freedom of thought
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Following a controversial fatwa by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which strongly recommends an end to liberalism, pluralism and secularism, Muslim moderates and conservatives are debating whether Islam recognizes freedom of thought.
A discussion here on Tuesday showed that Muslim scholars still strongly differed over this controversial issue.
Fauzan Al Anshari of the ultra-conservative Indonesian Mujahidin Assembly argued that there was no such thing as freedom of thought in Islam, but only the optimization of thinking.
"Human reason is very limited. Total freedom of thought, it is feared, would lead to apostasy."
Muhammadiyah leader and MUI deputy chairman Din Syamsuddin, meanwhile, said that there had been problems of semantics and the philosophy of meaning.
The meaning of pluralism, for instance, has been simplified to mean the relativism of religion, and that all religions are the same, while it should mean co-existence with the people of other religions, he added.
He also said Islam and liberalism are incompatible, as long as liberals question the validity of religion.
"In this case, we as ulema feel responsible to guide the our followers," Din said.
Muslim scholar Haidar Bagir from the Mizan publishing company dismissed the MUI's fatwa as not at all educational, and that it provoked, instead of guided Muslims, with the choice of provocative words such as heresy.
Haidar said that Islam guarantees freedom of thought and urges people to utilize reason. He was referring to many hadith(Prophet Muhammad's traditions), which state that God has granted humans with the ability to reason and full authorization to justify rights or wrongs.
The Koran does not speak for itself, he said, but it has to be interpreted.
"In the words of Caliph Ali bin Abi Thalib, 'It was the people who made the Koranic talks.' And the instrument to make the Koranic talks is reason," Haidar explained during a discussion organized by the University of Indonesia's Philosophy Department.
Therefore, he said, there is no dogma in Islam, nor is it a dogmatic institution and Muslims have total freedom in formulating their own truths.
"On the other hand, the truth in religiosity, and not the religion itself, is always relative and open. Which means no one has the right to monopolize the truth and interpretations," Haidar argued.
However, he said it was understandable that some people feared the possibility of misusing the power to reason, whether by misguided thinking or vested interests.
"Should there be a conflict, the only way to solve it is through a court settlement," Haidar added.
Another moderate scholar Abdul Moqsith Ghazali of the Liberal Islam Network (JIL), meanwhile, criticized the opinions that human powers of reason were limited, that freedom of thought tends to legitimize vices and humans should be shackled by strict rules as they are potentially destructive to themselves and society.
"Those opinions undermine reason, and therefore humans, as God's foremost creation. It's as if humans cannot elicit meaning from Koranic verses."
Moqsith was referring to Muslim philosophers, including Ibnu Rusyd, who said that should there be any teaching that conflicted with reason, then the teaching has to be reevaluated and reinterpreted.
"Humans have reason, unlike the Koranic texts. The latter is ambiguous, and has to be empowered."
He added that reason, by its very definition, would always create its own limits.
"The freedom of thought is merely for the sake of the freedom itself. It's not an unlimited freedom either, as justification of some things are also against proper reason."