EVEN as he faces a fine and a possible jail term, Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, is undeterred and the think tank he leads will continue to challenge the country’s authoritarian interpretation of Islam.

The Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) founder and chairman also believes that the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) investigation against him by is flawed.

“I am undeterred and we will continue to hold future programmes. I know that the path I started on is winding but, as long as I believe what I am doing is right, I will continue to do it,” said the heart surgeon-turned-activist.

“I believe that words and ideas can change the world,” he said, quoting a line from the acclaimed 1989 film “Dead Poets Society”.

On September 25, Jawi told Dr Farouk that he was being investigated for breaching Section 43 of the Shariah Offences (Federal Territories Act) 1997.

The provision deals with abetting someone in teaching Islam without proper accreditation. If found guilty, he can be sentenced to three years in jail, fined RM5,000, or both.

Jawi is investigating if he broke the law after IRF organised a forum on apostasy in Islam that featured renown Turkish author Mustafa Akyol. Mustafa was questioned by Jawi but later released.

In a scathing opinion piece published in the New York Times after he arrived in the US, Mustafa said, religious authorities, in their zeal to protect Islam, were instead producing hypocrites and are causing people to lose faith and respect in the religion.

“By policing religion, the authorities are not really protecting it. They are only enfeebling their societies, raising hypocrites and causing many people to lose their faith in or respect for Islam.

“I came to understand that while I was being held in the Jawi headquarters, listening to a loud Quranic recitation coming from the next room,” Mustafa had said.

It is the first time such an investigation had been launched despite the fact that IRF had organised scores of such talks since it was founded eight years ago.

Jawi did not investigate any of those past talks on charges that it breached laws concerning accreditation, said Dr Farouk.

“Our programmes are intellectual and academic discussions. We are not running classes to teach people religion,” he said, adding that the concept of ‘tauliah’ was more relevant to these latter cases.

Lawyers and academics have said the same thing concerning the provision in the Shariah enactment.

“They even questioned Mustafa why he recited a phrase from the Quran in his speech. How is it an offence for a Muslim to recite the Quran in a public speech?

“If that is the case, what about all the other politicians who do the same?”

And if the charges against Mustafa could be considered erroneous, Dr Farouk reasoned, then the charge against him (for abetting Mustafa) was similarly flawed.

“This forms the basis of what I will tell Jawi when I give my statement on Monday (October 2).”

Monopoly on religion 

The IRF is one of a handful of Muslim groups that have challenged Malaysia’s Islamic orthodoxy that is promoted by its religious authorities, politicians and a vast private-public education industry.

IRF forums feature Islamic experts who often espouse ideas about Islam that are different from the official, mainstream interpretation. Dr Farouk believes that this was why he is being investigated.

“Based on what the Jawi officers told me, I believe this whole incident is a way in which they want to show their power and authority. It comes on the heels of their complaint against another scholar we had, Mun’im Sirry.”

Mun’im, who is based in the United States, had been one of the speakers at an IRF forum on moderation in the Quran, which also featured Perlis Mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin.

Last month, the National Islamic Development Department (Jakim) had accused Mun’im of bringing in deviant beliefs into the country.

Just like Mustafa, Mun’im had expressed ideas that were different than what the Malaysian religious establishment has come to accept as official Islam, said Dr Farouk.

In his talk, Mustafa had broached the idea that Muslims should be allowed, and not be punished, for leaving their religion – a view that is supported by some Muslim scholars.

Mun’im quoted another scholar when he said that pre-Islamic Arabia was not as uncivilised as previously thought.

“It seems that religious authorities and the public are scared to think and consider new ideas. Any new idea is seen as a challenge to their understanding of Islam. This is the monopoly on religious discourse in the country,” Dr Farouk said. – September 29, 2017.