5 - Islamist Lawyers’ Views

Summary

I concentrate in this chapter on the views of some Islamist lawyers on the political and legal framework of Malaysia. I present first the views of Mohamed Ariff Yusof and Haji Sulaiman Abdullah. Their views relate more to political and ethnic interrelations and the rightful place of Islam in Malaysia. The second half of this chapter concerns the more narrowly legal arguments promulgated by the late professor of law in Singapore and Malaysia, Ahmad Ibrahim. Although he admits the Constitution to be secular, he develops a sophisticated (and arguably constitutionally sound) argument by which Islamic law could be given primacy over the Constitution and all other laws in Malaysia. The views, arguments, and sentiments examined in here are of the kind that activists must address in their defence of freedom of religion in Malaysia. Before moving on in Chapter 6 to a description of one civil society initiative instigated to mount such a defence, I examine Salbiah Ahmad's response to some of the arguments of Ahmad Ibrahim. She points out the important limitations of wholly legal challenges.

THE VIEWS OF MOHAMED ARIFF YUSOF AND HAJI SULAIMAN ABDULLAH

On Thursday 23 September 2004, I attended in Kuala Lumpur a Harvard Club colloquium titled “Islam Today: Themes and Issues”. I understood that many of those in attendance were Harvard graduates, while others had received invitations. I belonged to the latter group. The two speakers for the evening were both members of the Malaysian Bar and advocates for the replacement of civil law with Syariah law. They both spoke with apparent candour and shared their views and opinions on current trends pertaining to Islam politically, socially, and legally.

Mohamed Ariff Yusof

The first speaker at the colloquium, Mohamed, was keen to stress to his largely non-Muslim audience that Islam's image as a religion of terrorism did not reflect Islam as it really was. No Muslim would condone the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York nor any attacks on innocent people. He deplored the biased portrayal of Islam in the American media which he described as full of fear and hate and he assured his audience that “there is nothing to fear from Islam”. He asked his audience to keep an open mind to the ideas coming from what he described as the “Islamist movement”.