Malaysian scholar:

Islam doesn’t contradict with modernity

Muslims in Malaysia from two main Islamic School of Thought, Sunnism and Shiism, are increasingly accepting the proximity and unity.

News ID: 447706

Date: 16 November 2019 - 15:33

In an interview with RNA, Ahmad Fauzi Abd al-Hamid Prof. of Political Science at the Malaysian university of Penang spoke about the Unity among Muslims and said, “Muslims in Malaysia from two main Islamic School of Thought, Sunnism and Shiism, are increasingly accepting the proximity and unity but because of Petrodollars and also funding by Saudi government some (people are) propagating Salafi Wahhabi thoughts.”

Prof. Ahmad Fauzi said, “They are creating divisions and disunity among Muslims and I think the Malaysian government has maintained a neutral position and has tried its best to maintain a good towards both Iran and Saudi Arabia in terms of (for example) trade relations.”

Answering the question of successfulness of Malaysian policies toward Muslim unity he said that it is gaining success but, “The problem in Malaysia is the funding Salafi Takfiri thoughts by Saudi Arabia since 40 to 50 years ago (1970s).”

“There has been increasing salafizations of the (Malaysian) society”, he said, “We see (it) for instance in the Malaysian National Fatwa. It has been changed from what it was before 80s which was more accepted as a broad school of Islam. But later by influencing the Salafism in 80s about two thousand of Fatwas changed to something which was more hostile.”

Prof. Ahmad Fauzi said “Malaysian People are open and don’t reject r accept Salafism but there are some influences of Salafism on the culture of Malaysia and the problem is that the divisive Salafi school of thought is being advocated and supported by some elements within the government and in fact it means within the past government which lost last year the election.”

“Some members of the last government had coopted with Salafis which become influential people”, Prof. Fauzi emphasized and said, “I think it was on of the challenges we had and since changing the government last year, things have been better because some relations with Suadis have been cut to be more neutral.”

Answering a question about method by which the Islamic Nations could do more for Unity and proximity, Prof. Fauzi said, “Nations Specially Malaysian nation should be more courageous for announcing greater proximity between different Islamic Schools of Thoughts and cooperation with them and not be coward and bullied by foreign nations like the United States (for cooperating with Muslim nations). For instance, I heard because of Western sanctions some Malaysian Banks close Iranian accounts which is not acceptable. So this is one of the things which the Malaysian government needs to be more courageous in, upholding the rights of Muslims whatever their denominations are, whether Sunni or Shiite and in fact even defend the rights of non-Muslims because of the humanitarian considerations because at the end all of us are human beings we have certain rights and duties before the society and God”.

At the end Malaysian university Prof. of Political science suggests new Islamic method through International Relations theories and said, “I would say that the fundamentals of such an ideology exist in Islam but of course whatever we learn from scripture, Quran, Sunnah and books of Ulama we should make suitable for modern life and I think it is the responsibility of Muslim academics and scholars of present age who live in modern society to uphold Islam as a religion which doesn’t necessarily contradict with modernity.”

Rasa News Agency

A847/914