Religious dialog needs to remain open: Activist
Religious dialog needs to remain open: Activist
Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Public space for debate about religion is important and must be maintained, says Zainah Anwar of the Malaysian organization Sisters in Islam.
In Malaysia, she said, "Space for debate has grown, and there is no turning back."
The battle of ideas to define what is Islam and what is not, she said, "can only be done ... where there is freedom of speech, freedom of expression and press freedom.
"The fact that Islam is increasingly shaping and redefining our lives means all of us have to engage with the religion if we do not want it to remain hijacked by those who preach hatred, intolerance, bigotry, misogyny."
Anwar, the current executive director of the above non- governmental organization, was one of the speakers on Tuesday, the second and last day of the 6th Asian-European Editors Forum held by the Singapore office of the Konrad Adenaur Foundation and The Jakarta Post.
In Malaysia, the voice of conservative groups seeking to counter "liberal voices" are "fine", she said, as it provides another opportunity and forum for public debate.
Lay citizens are also speaking up on religious issues, she said. Normally, "ordinary Muslims who do not speak Arabic, who don't wear the hijab, who don't have a degree in Islam from the 'right' universities (in the Arab region), do not have a right to speak publicly on Islam."
She cited Muslim parents questioning the rights of people raiding discotheques in the name of religion, saying they also allow their children to go to the entertainment places.
Sisters in Islam was first known in the early 1990s for its first booklet titled: Are Muslim men allowed to beat their wives? It was followed by similar booklets on other controversial religious issues in the daily life of women.
"It was the complaints of women on such issues which gave us the courage", she said, to look into the text of the Koran, linking it to the reality of women's lives, Malaysia's constitution which does not allow gender discrimination and the universal human rights conventions to which Malaysia is a signatory party.
The women would not raise their voices as like many others they thought only the ulema could speak on Islam, she said.
"By claiming our right and creating the space to speak out in public on Islam, we have made enemies," she said, citing the attacks and condemnation against the organization.
When women from Malaysia and also from other countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia began to look deeper into the Koran, she said they found the "ethical vision of equality and justice for women" in Islam which had somehow been silenced in the process of interpretation and codification of laws, "dominated by male jurists and scholars".
"We believe in God and we refuse to believe that He is unjust," she said.
She added that the issues facing many citizens are not really about religion, but about the tradition of patriarchy and power. Malaysian leaders since Mahathir Mohamad have had a "progressive" vision of Islam, she said, but "the state has been unable to deliver that message".
Responding to questions on where the Malaysian government was heading she said, "It's neither here nor there, the government is in a conundrum," adding that by showing it adheres to notions such as gender equality, its power would be threatened. At least in Malaysia,"I am optimistic that the voice of reason will prevail," she said, adding that non-Muslims who make up 40 percent of the population are also "speaking up as never before".