THE Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 serves as an opportune wake-up call at a time when Islamic nations are beset by a host of challenges, leaving many of them helpless and undignified, and without the much needed resolution to address them in a comprehensive fashion.

Ravages of civil and sectarian wars, poverty, terrorism, religious extremism, oppression, bad governance, refugees, a divided ummah and corruption are some of the problems that have become synonymous with today’s Muslims, which troubled Muslim leaders, particularly Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, one of the prime movers of the summit.

There are issues associated with the violation, as well as mockery, of justice, democracy, and human rights and dignity, which many of Islamic countries are notorious for.

In particular, economic disparity within and between Islamic nations needs to be addressed vigorously. This necessitates concerted and sustained effort from the state to confront poverty in a country, and inter-state economic cooperation to help poorer Muslim countries.

Abject poverty of one section of society can be so devastating and dehumanising that it erodes human dignity, which could spark conflict between the haves and the have nots, and subsequently cause social unrest.

Additionally, gender inequality is another issue that needs to be tackled in a systematic manner in Islamic countries, where women are discriminated against in terms of gainful employment as well as education. Traces of patriarchy are usually intact here.

There are also the pressing issues that confront Muslims in non-Muslim majority countries, namely the Rohingya in Myanmar, where they are said to be subjected to persecution and genocide. Similarly, the case of Uighurs in China, where they are reportedly sent to so-called rehabilitation centres in which their Muslim identity and honour are desecrated.

This is apart from the Palestinian issue that has yet to be resolved after many decades.

Radical interpretation of the holy scriptures has spawned a cohort of Muslim terrorists who claim to kill non-Muslims and Muslims alike in the name of the Almighty, which contradicts the true teachings of Islam that does not condone killings.

Obviously, a certain conservative take on Islam by particular Muslim scholars could in many ways help produce obedient followers who eventually function as walking time bombs. Countries, such as Malaysia, need to vigilantly monitor and detect such deviancy.

The deplorable state many Muslims are in have largely contributed to the fanning of Islamophobia, particularly among communities outside the ummah, consequently aggravating their lives even further. In other words, Islam becomes vilified, justly or otherwise.

This is, obviously, a far cry from the golden era of Islamic civilisation where trade, industry, science and the arts flourished to the point of becoming an envy of non-Muslim nations of yore.

The pursuit of worldly knowledge, apart from Islamic studies, at the time was well-respected and encouraged in a larger social context, where freedom of inquiry existed. Muslims then held their heads high.

In contrast, moral policing and playing God in the contemporary world, such as monitoring and punishing Muslims who do not attend Friday prayers or observe fasting, and catching unwed Muslim couples who are deemed promiscuous, are not the stuff a progressive, scientific, educated, democratic and religiously observant Islamic society is made of.

The KL meeting, which is being attended by Muslim leaders, intellectuals, scholars and thinkers from 56 countries, rightly aims to reflect on what is going wrong within the 1.75 billion Muslim community worldwide and how to proceed henceforth.

To this end, seven major themes have been outlined for discussion at the summit: development and sovereignty; integrity and good governance; culture and identity; justice and freedom; peace, security and defence; trade and investment; and, technology and internet governance.

This may sound like a tall order, but concrete actions have to be taken to resolve some of the outstanding problems facing the ummah.

Let not the current plight of Muslims be a lingering legacy that is passed on to future generations. There’s no honour in doing that. – December 20, 2019.