An excerpt:
Does Islam need a Central Command?
The question of authority in Islam is as old as the religion itself, and the historian will be the first to tell you that since time immemorial countless Muslim scholars from Ibn Taimiyya to al-Ghazali to Ibn Khaldun have been grappling with the question of power and discursive authority among Muslims, to address the fundamental question: 'Who speaks for Islam?'
But the real question that has to be addressed is this: would the centralisation of power and discursive authority put an end to the rumour mongering and hate speeches? Or would it not merely add to the increased power of the state and result in the further co-optation of Islam and Islamic discourse in the country? Is there not the very real problem that once religious discursive authority is bolstered by power and institutionalised it merely ends up being yet another appendage to state power?
Islam began as a reaction against the corruption of the Bedouin tribes and their feudal customs, and it is the egalitarian ethos of Islam that rebelled against such feudal power that today fuels the differences of thought, belief and praxis among Muslims the world over. How can Muslim states ever contain, police and monopolise the discourse of Islam without striking at its very ethical and philosophical heart?
For many a Muslim government today, a reality check is in order. Rapid development since the post-colonial era, accompanied by mass migration to the cities and urbanisation, accelerated by globalisation and exposure to global media and trends of thought means that plurality of opinion and belief is greater now than ever before. Muslim elites have to realise that this pluralism can and should be turned into an asset, and not seen as a threat per se. While it is true that the likes of Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakar Bashir exist out there to antagonise and provoke the masses, there are also countless Muslim intellectuals and scholars of note whose ideas are path breaking, revolutionary and modern. The way to prevent the slippage towards a more communitarian and violent register is not to close the doors of free speech but to create the framework for a civil society where ideas can be discussed maturely and in the open.
This will surely take time, and perhaps the Muslim world does not have much time at its disposal. But nobody ever said that creating a society of mature responsible citizens was an immediate process that can be fast-tracked. What is required however are the constitutional and institutional guarantees that such a civil society will not come under the domination of a small self-interested elite. That is why the remedy to the hyperbolic rhetoric of the likes of Osama lies not in more security laws, but in a free media, an open university system, the flourishing of texts and discourses and the rule of law that will guarantee that all citizens abide by the same rules.
No, the Muslim world does not need a 'Muslim Central Command Headquarters' that dispatches government-approved fatwas by the minute. But it does need the space to think aloud and to dissent. In time, the angry voices of the likes of Osama will be drowned out not by government propaganda, but by ordinary Muslims who will simply say 'enough is enough' and claim their faith back for themselves.
http://www.aseanfocus.com/asiananalysis/article.cfm?articleID=1017
Does Islam need a Central Command?
The question of authority in Islam is as old as the religion itself, and the historian will be the first to tell you that since time immemorial countless Muslim scholars from Ibn Taimiyya to al-Ghazali to Ibn Khaldun have been grappling with the question of power and discursive authority among Muslims, to address the fundamental question: 'Who speaks for Islam?'
But the real question that has to be addressed is this: would the centralisation of power and discursive authority put an end to the rumour mongering and hate speeches? Or would it not merely add to the increased power of the state and result in the further co-optation of Islam and Islamic discourse in the country? Is there not the very real problem that once religious discursive authority is bolstered by power and institutionalised it merely ends up being yet another appendage to state power?
Islam began as a reaction against the corruption of the Bedouin tribes and their feudal customs, and it is the egalitarian ethos of Islam that rebelled against such feudal power that today fuels the differences of thought, belief and praxis among Muslims the world over. How can Muslim states ever contain, police and monopolise the discourse of Islam without striking at its very ethical and philosophical heart?
For many a Muslim government today, a reality check is in order. Rapid development since the post-colonial era, accompanied by mass migration to the cities and urbanisation, accelerated by globalisation and exposure to global media and trends of thought means that plurality of opinion and belief is greater now than ever before. Muslim elites have to realise that this pluralism can and should be turned into an asset, and not seen as a threat per se. While it is true that the likes of Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakar Bashir exist out there to antagonise and provoke the masses, there are also countless Muslim intellectuals and scholars of note whose ideas are path breaking, revolutionary and modern. The way to prevent the slippage towards a more communitarian and violent register is not to close the doors of free speech but to create the framework for a civil society where ideas can be discussed maturely and in the open.
This will surely take time, and perhaps the Muslim world does not have much time at its disposal. But nobody ever said that creating a society of mature responsible citizens was an immediate process that can be fast-tracked. What is required however are the constitutional and institutional guarantees that such a civil society will not come under the domination of a small self-interested elite. That is why the remedy to the hyperbolic rhetoric of the likes of Osama lies not in more security laws, but in a free media, an open university system, the flourishing of texts and discourses and the rule of law that will guarantee that all citizens abide by the same rules.
No, the Muslim world does not need a 'Muslim Central Command Headquarters' that dispatches government-approved fatwas by the minute. But it does need the space to think aloud and to dissent. In time, the angry voices of the likes of Osama will be drowned out not by government propaganda, but by ordinary Muslims who will simply say 'enough is enough' and claim their faith back for themselves.
http://www.aseanfocus.com/asiananalysis/article.cfm?articleID=1017
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