In April 2006, I was interviewed by a young woman who was writing a thesis for her degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Malaya. I was flattered (for a while) to find out that the subject of her thesis was my writing along with that of the other Malaysian writer Farish Noor. Her thesis was titled ‘Liberal Islam in Malaysia: Issues raised by Farish Noor and Syed Akbar Ali’. But my exuberance was dampened by the fact that I had been labelled a ‘liberal’ by her teachers.
This type of labelling – especially negative labelling – is a favourite tool of the religious fraternity. Name calling and trying to stigmatise people with whom they may not agree is among their tools of the trade. And just like their confusion about who really is an ulema they are also confused by labelling me a ‘liberal’. Just for the record I would like to declare that I am a hardcore, fundamentalist Muslim. And this is what I told the young woman from the University. We have no choice but to return to the hardcore fundamentals of Islam that are carefully preserved in the Quran. The Quran is almost entirely different from what is preached by the religious scholars.
http://newageislam.com/no-to-the-mullahs!-/current-affairs/d/1773
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