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| Kebebasan Agama atau Non Dialog: Yang Mana Satukah Ancaman? Posted: 17 Nov 2012 09:20 PM PST Dr Mohd Faizal Musa, Felo Penyelidik Kebebasan beragama adalah bahagian penting dari Deklarasi Hak Asasi Manusia 1948 (UDHR). Fakta sejarah menunjukkan pada tahun 1972 negara-negara Islam melalui OIC, telah bersetuju untuk mendokongi UDHR secara penuh. Ann Elizabeth Mayer yang menganalisis Resolusi OIC tahun 1972 tersebut menyatakan, negara-negara anggota OIC telah pun memperakukan yang UDHR bersesuaian dengan nilai-nilai agama Islam: The 1972 Charter of the Islamic Conference, the international organization to which all Muslim countries belong, expressly endorses international law and fundamental human rights, treating them as compatible with Islamic values. In the Preamble of the Charter, two adjacent paragraphs assert that the members are –
…we must realize that the legal position of the apostate in Islam does not come under the rubric of freedom of faith, but under what is nowadays called high treason, by taking up arms against society and the state. Those who talk about human rights today, with emphasis on the freedom of belief, do not mean by it freedom to betray one's own country, society and religion, or freedom to usurp other people's property, or freedom to collude with the enemy. Therefore, freedom is one thing, apostasy another. What the modern jurisprudents are expected to do is to decide whether or not a Muslim who chooses to follow another faith, on personal bases, which do not affect the Islamic society or the state, should be considered an apostate in the traditional jurisprudential sense or in the sense explained by the verses quoted above, where the apostates are threatened with great punishment in the hereafter, without reference to execution (Mohammed Abed al-Jabri , 2009: 196-200). Secara ringkasnya, pandangan Al-Jabri tersebut meletakkan gejala meninggalkan agama Islam sebagai satu jenayah politik, dan bukannya 'jenayah agama'. Kemurtadan, apostasia atau apa sahaja yang seerti dengannya dilihat sebagai satu pengkhianatan, malah penderhakaan terhadap agama Islam. Sebahagian besar perbincangan tentang kebebasan beragama dalam Islam, termasuk yang dianalisis oleh Al Jabri adalah sekitar ayat 256 surah al Baqarah; 'tidak ada paksa dalam ugama (Islam), kerana sesungguhnya telah nyata kebenaran (Islam) dari kesesatan (kufur). Oleh itu, sesiapa yang tidak percayakan Taghut, dan ia pula beriman kepada Allah, maka sesungguhnya ia berpegang kepada simpulan (tali ugama) yang teguh, yang tidak akan putus. Dan (ingatlah), Allah Maha Mendengar, lagi Maha Mengetahui' (Tafsir Pimpinan Ar Rahman).' Pandangan Al Jabri tersebut bukanlah baharu memandangkan Rachid Ghannouchi (1993: 44-50) dalam al Hurriyat al-'Ammah Fid Daulah al-Islamiyyah, telah pun menyamakan apostasia dengan 'jenayah hasutan'. Ghannouchi, justeru, dalam karya tersebut menyatakan tindakan meninggalkan agama Islam tanpa 'menjejaskan citra agama Islam' adalah sesuatu yang tidak dapat dielakkan, dan selalu berlaku hari ini. Selepas penerbitan al Hurriyat al-'Ammah Fid Daulah al-Islamiyyah, sekali lagi dalam kuliahnya untuk Cardiff Islamic Society pada tahun 1997, Ghannouchi menegaskan, hukuman terhadap seseorang Islam yang murtad hanyalah satu urusan ijtihad dan ini dikesan menerusi pertikaian antara para sahabat Rasulullah saw khususnya dalam menentukan perang terhadap golongan murtad ketika awal pemerintahan Abu Bakar. Tindakan memerangi golongan murtad yang dilancarkan oleh Abu Bakar tersebut, awalnya dibantah oleh beberapa sahabat ternama termasuk Umar al Khattab (Azzam S Tamimi, 2001: 191). Beza Ghannouchi dan Mohammed Abed al Jabri adalah, Al Jabri berpendapat 'kebebasan satu hal, apostasia satu hal berbeza.' Ghannouchi pula menegaskan apostasia hanya menjadi sesuatu yang serius jikalau maruah 'Islam dicemari'. Dua pandangan di atas, masih kelihatan samar. Al Jabri dan Ghannouchi malah tidak ditanggapi sebagai sarjana pengajian Islam. Dalam tahun 1992, Mohamed Talbi, seorang sarjana terhormat dari University of Tunis, Tunisia, dan mahir dalam bidang tafsir al-Quran menulis tentang hak-hak untuk memilih beragama. Menurut Talbi, pilihan beragama dan kepercayaan adalah urusan sukarela hatta ibu bapa tidak mempunyai hak untuk memaksakan ke atas anak-anak mereka pilihan kepercayaan mereka: To best of my knowledge, among all the revealed texts, only the Quran stresses religious liberty in such a precise and unambiguous way. Faith, to be true and reliable faith, absolutely needs to be free and voluntary act. In this connection it is worth stressing that the quoted verse was aimed at reproving and condemning the attitude of some Jews and Christians who, being newly converted to Islam in Medina, were willing to convert their children with them to their new faith. Thus it is clearly emphasized that faith is an individual concern and commitment and that even parents must refrain from interfering with it. The very nature of faith, as is stressed in the basic text of Islam is clear and indisputable words, is to be a voluntary act born out of conviction and freedom (Mohamed Talbi, 2009: 109). Tentu sahaja, dari pandangan Islam, seseorang yang memilih untuk keluar dari agama Islam melakukan 'kesilapan', akan tetapi itu adalah pilihan sendiri. Mohamed Talbi menegaskan, mereka yang memilih agama selain Islam telah diberi amaran bahawa Islam adalah agama kebenaran; dan keselamatan di akhirat tidak ada pada agama lain: Accordingly, the apostates are warned: those who choose apostasy, after being convinced in their innermost thoughts that Islam is the truth, are unjust, and as such they are bereft of God's guidance, with all the consequences that follow for their salvation (Mohamed Talbi, 2009: 115). Di hujung makalah beliau yang terkenal itu, Talbi menekankan, meskipun 'terkutuk secara moralnya'; urusan seseorang yang murtad bukan sama sekali urusan penguasa. Malah, pilihan untuk menukar agama tersebut harus dihormati, 'religious liberty is fundamentally and ultimately an act of respect for God's sovereignty and for the mystery of God's plan for humanity'. Sejarah juga menjadi bukti, pemerintahan Islam bersikap begitu longgar terhadap 'Crypto Jewish' dan 'Crypto Christian', malah ia pernah menjadi fenomena meluas ketika pemerintahan Othmaniyyah satu masa dahulu. Terminologi crypto merujuk kepada 'mereka yang pandangan keagamaan dan amalan mereka tidak bersesuaian dengan agama rasmi anutan mereka dan selalunya menyembunyikan hakikat tersebut dari masyarakat awam'. Terminologi ini tidak eksklusif untuk Yahudi dan Kristian sahaja, malah, setelah Sepanyol jatuh ke tangan Kristian, masyarakat Islam yang tidak berhijrah ke daerah-daerah di Afrika Utara dan memilih untuk menetap di Sepanyol turut menjadi Crypto Muslims (Moriscos). Maurus Reinkowski (2007: 416) menegaskan 'crypto Jews' dan 'crypto Christians' adalah golongan murtad, 'quite naturally should have been considered apostates; they had confessed to be a Muslims, and had then fallen away from Islam', tetapi pemerintah Islam khususunya Othmaniyyah bertolak ansur dengan mereka. Cryptos hanya dihukum apabila secara 'berterusan' mencabar 'kedaulatan Islam' (Selim Deringil, 2000: 547-575). Di Malaysia, semua urusan perihal Islam diurus, ditadbir, dikendali dan ditentukan secara penuh oleh pemerintah. Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom (2012), Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri sebagai misalan menyatakan Islam adalah agama rasmi menurut perlembagaan Malaysia, makanya setiap anak yang dilahirkan sebagai seorang Islam hendaklah kekal sebagai seorang Islam. Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (2012), Menteri Kementerian Kemajuan Luar Bandar Dan Wilayah dengan nada yang hampir sama memberi jaminan yang 'untuk setiap Muslim, pemerintah bertanggungjawab memastikan nilai-nilai Islam dipraktik dan dilaksanakan. Oleh kerana itu madrasah (surau), sekolah agama, Universti Islam, ceramah agama dan kuliah agama di tv dan radio dipupuk oleh pemerintah demi memastikan orang Islam tidak terkeluar dari jalan Islam.' Malaysia seperti yang kita semua maklum, mengamalkan undang-undang Islam dan sivil (versi Malaysia) dan ia diurustadbir oleh Jabatan Kemajuan Agama Islam Malaysia dan Mahkamah Syariah. Fakta sejarah tidak dapat dimungkiri lagi bahawa urusan agama di dalam genggaman kerajaan sepertinya yang dilihat hari ini merupakan warisan penjajah Inggeris. Moshe Yegar, seorang penyelidik berbangsa Yahudi dan rakyat Israel dari Hebrew University of Jerusalem pernah menetap di Malaysia dari bulan November 1964 sehingga hujung 1965. Hasil penelitian Yegar, beliau menerbitkan sebuah buku akademik yang kandungannya memuji 'kebijaksanaan British' dalam memperkenalkan birokrasi Islam di Malaysia sehingga Islam akhirnya menjadi satu jurus yang tertentu dan terhad di bawah satu pentadbiran: In general, British tolerance of Islam, indirectly, knowingly and unknowingly, was most helpful in an expansion and consolidation of Islam by legislative and administrative means. But the preservation and reinforcement of the traditional bases of authority and social organization implicit in British policy, and improved communications and progressive centralization, combined to fashion a more authoritarian form of religious administration than any that the Peninsula had known before. Colonial rule thus made for the concentration of doctrinal and administrative religious authority in the hands of a hierarchy of officials directly dependent on the sultans for their posts and power. The rulers and their State Councils began to assume a wider responsibility for religious affairs. Written, codified systems of civil and criminal law generated pressure to establish a more formal system of Islamic law, which was duly enacted in State Councils; courts were set up, legal procedures laid down, and a legal bureaucracy built to administer therm. A new establishment of religious officials now functioned in the sultans' courts and in the villages no less. Many of these developments (notably the regulation of sharia courts), while responding to a real need, were also and emulation of administrative models of the West in a field which the Malays felt to be peculiarly their own. While there had been kathis, sharia law, and restrictive Islamic provisions at various times and places before, what the Malays added was the methodical application of law by an organized religious officialdom (Moshe Yegar, 1979: 266). Peninstitusian Islam seperti yang terlihat pada Jabatan Kemajuan Agama Islam hari ini, menurut Yegar membuahkan semacam 'authoritative Islam' yang dipertahan oleh Malaysia sebagai 'satu urusan di bawah takluk perlembagaan'. Tentulah sangat menjengkelkan buat ramai 'agamawan konservatif', hakikat bahawa seorang ahli akademik Israel seperti Moshe Yegar pernah hadir di negara ini dan 'memuji' pula warisan kepintaran British, iaitu pentadbiran agama Islam sebagai ber'model Barat'. 'Pujian' Moshe Yegar terhadap legasi penjajah Inggeris ini bagaimanapun tidak disambut baik oleh antropologis terkenal di Malaysia. Abdullah Taib (1985: 226) misalnya pernah menyatakan, 'Sejak tahun 1920-an beberapa buah negeri di Tanah Melayu telah menubuhkan Majlis Agama dan Adat Istiadat Melayu. Hingga ke hari ini sudah hampir 60 tahun majlis itu berjalan atas nama seperti itu. Penubuhan Majlis Agama ini ialah hasil 'kebijaksanaan' penjajah Inggeris.' Penggunaan tanda kurung untuk ungkapan 'kebijaksanaan penjajah Inggeris' menunjukkan rasa kurang selesa Abdullah Taib. Bahkan dalam kajian beliau tersebut, peranan Jabatan Agama Islam dalam menyudutkan nilai-nilai lokal dikritik secara halus, dan secara akademik tentunya. 'Islam institusi' yang diperkenalkan oleh penjajah inilah yang perlahan-lahan mulai 'menggelisahkan' bahagian-bahagian hidup segelintir rakyat Malaysia yang bukan beragama Islam. Persoalan ini menjadi semakin dramatik dan kontroversial baru-baru ini, seperti yang terpapar dalam surat pembaca Steve Oh (2012) kepada Malaysiakini. Pandangan peribadi dan kebebasan berekspresi Oh boleh sahaja ditanggapi sebagai 'menghasut'. Namun demikian, 'kegelisahan' warga Malaysia yang bukan beragama Islam seperti Steve Oh mesti ditangani dengan dialog dan keterbukaan. Amalan mendiamkan orang seperti Steve Oh tidak membawa apa-apa manfaat jangka panjang. Kebebasan beragama di Malaysia memang sering menjadi sasaran kritikan luar. Sebagai contoh, Jabatan Negara Amerika Syarikat pada tahun 2007, dalam laporannya menyatakan: State authorities impose Islamic religious laws administered through Islamic courts on all ethnic Malays (and other Muslims) in family law and other civil matters. Muslims may generally not convert to another religion although article 11 of the Federal Constitution guarantees religious freedom, the country's highest court ruled during the reporting period that Muslims wanting to convert to another religion must first obtain approval from a Shari'a court (US Department of State, 2007). Sebagai catatan, pada tahun 2007 tersebut, Mahkamah Persekutuan telah menolak permohonan Lina Joy untuk menggugurkan kata Islam dari kad pengenalannya. Permohonan Joy, yang dilahirkan sebagai Azlina Jailani tersebut telah dinafikan kerana mahkamah memutuskan, oleh kerana agama asal Joy adalah Islam maka ia merupakan sebahagian dari urusan Islam. Justeru, hanya Jabatan Agama Islam sahaja boleh memutuskan secara rasmi kedudukan Joy sebagai seorang Kristian. Keputusan mahkamah tersebut disambut oleh World Muslim Congress dengan tempelak: Freedom of faith means not only freedom to choose a faith, but also freedom to change one's faith. While Islam regards apostasy a grave sin, but that is between God and the respective individual. When it is a matter of simple apostasy, .e, merely changing one's faith without any aggression or treason against an lslamic State or Muslims, the principle of freedom of faith in Islam requires that such apostate must be allowed to exercise their God-given freedom. The traditional position, which seems to have been the basis for the Malaysian civil court to defer the matter with treason or aggression. An encouraging thing is that the tide of opinion among Muslims in turning away from the traditional view to one that is in consonance with the message of the Quran and the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad (World Muslim Congress, 2007). Perenggan dari kenyataan media di atas, secara signifikan dikeluarkan oleh World Muslim Congress. Ia turut membantah pencabulan hak asasi manusia di Malaysia. Harus dinyatakan, World Muslim Congress mengundang Joy untuk kembali ke agama Islam, 'we invite our sister in humanity Lina Joy (Azlina Jailani) back to Islam' tetapi dalam masa yang sama menggesa kebebasan beragama diberikan dan menuntut supaya pemerintah Malaysia membuang pandangan apostasia sebagai 'treason or aggression'. World Muslim Congress tentu sahaja tidak membuat tuduhan liar dan serkap jarang, ia mungkin bersandarkan pandangan pegawai Bahagian Penyelidikan Akidah Jabatan Kemajuan Agama Islam Malaysia yang sering merujuk kepada pandangan-pandangan sempit ulama salafi: If a person's apostasy is announced to the public and his new faith advertised, then the person had declared an attack in the form of perceptions (al-harb al-fikriyyah) on Islam and its belief. His action will raise or plant seeds of doubts in the hearts of the other Muslims. At such time, the act of apostasy should not be seen from the angle of individual rights to change his religion, but from the aspect of the presence of "hirabah‟‟ element which is an attack on the fundamentals of religion that is the pillar of an Islamic government. Therefore, immediate steps should be taken to start the process of providing explanation to clear the person‟s doubts, asking him to repent and should he remain defiant and insist to apostate, the end is a death penalty on the grounds of "hirabah‟‟ (al-qatlu hirabatan). This means, apostates are not executed because of their infidelity but on the grounds of hirabah. This is clear based on verse 33 of surah al-Ma'idah which means: "Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land…". Even though the verse is defined by most Islamic scholars as a verse to carry out punishment on criminals and robbers, it cannot be denied that the public act of apostasy is an act that wage war against Allah s.w.t. and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). As such, a few of Salaf scholars hold the opinion that the punishment to execute an apostate is taken from this verse too, apart from the sound hadiths that serve to clarify the matter (Mohd Aizam Mas'od, tanpa tarikh: 5). Pandangan ekstrim di atas tentu sahaja dapat dipermasalahkan untuk sebuah negara berbilang kaum dan agama di Malaysia. Mereka yang menuntut kebebasan beragama misalnya dengan mudah ditanggap sebagai penghasut dan penjahat dengan niat buruk terhadap Islam. Adakah pandangan di atas, pandangan Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah? Atau hanyalah pandangan minoriti ulama wahabi yang terkenal sebagai pembantah dialog? Read more at: http://www.projekdialog.com/featured/kebebasan-agama-atau-non-dialog-yang-mana-satukah-ancaman/ | ||||||
| Sting in the tail (or at the end) Posted: 17 Nov 2012 03:08 PM PST Malaysiakini - PAS ready to rule M'sia with Pakatan, declares Hadi reported: "PAS conducts tahaluf siyasi with an understanding that Pakatan Rakyat upholds the concept of commonality and not focus on differences," he said. "This tahaluf siyasi should not make us lose sight of PAS members' understanding towards the concept of Fiqh al-Taat (loyalty) to the party," he said. Harakah Daily - Hadi outlines ways to set right the economy Hadi said should PAS be given the mandate to rule as part of Pakatan Rakyat, the party would strive for a shift to an economic philosophy that was fairer. "In this regard, the fiscal as well as the fair monetary policy must be utilised fully to pace growth," he said, adding that future implementation of economic policy must be complemented by the concept of reward and punishment according to the Shariah, holistic accountability and preventive laws to prevent extravagance, leakage, fraud and corruption.
These are not just the words of a PAS President but that of a PM-in-waiting. Pak Haji has now projected his very very presidential prime ministerial persona, and proclaims he/PAS is "ready" to rule Malaysia …. er … together with Pakatan of course. Throughout his more than 2-hour speech at the PAS Muktamar, he studiously avoided any mention of the hudud word, and stressed instead on PAS' concept of an Islamic welfare state.
Coincidentally, The Malaysian Insider (TMI) had carried the news earlier that some leading PAS delegates want party leaders to tread lightly on sensitive issues where it reported: Several PAS delegates have expressed fear that the outspokenness and eagerness of some leaders to comment on sensitive issues would only invite trouble for the party ahead of the coming general election. Though they used Nurul Izzah's 'no compulsion in religion' as the example to showcase the improper, inappropriate and indiscreet haste of some over-eager PAS leaders to speak out, and unwittingly use words which could hurt PAS' election prospects, I suspect those PAS delegates have something more important in mind, namely, the implementation of PAS avowed hudud.
Today, TMI's Muktamar PAS lebih matang, elak bicara isu sensitif untuk kekal sokongan bukan islam left us in no doubt on that, reporting clearly PAS' pre-election strategy: Muktamar Tahunan PAS ke-58 yang terakhir menjelang pilihan raya umum (PRU) ke-13 akan melabuhkan tirainya hari ini dilihat lebih matang berbanding tahun sebelumnya, kata penganalisis politik tanah air. Mereka turut berpendapat, PAS dilihat mengamalkan sikap berhati-hati dalam menyentuh isu sensitif seperti hudud yang berkemungkinan akan memberikan kesan sokongan daripada penyokong bukan Muslim mereka. In short, ... (translated in kaytee's way) ... so far so good mateys, you've shown maturity but make sure you don't blurb out sensitive stuff that'll frighten away the non-Muslim votes for PAS. To be fair, PAS has never hidden the fact it is an Islamic party with an Islamic obligation to turn Malaysia into its vision of what an Islamic country should be.
And no matter how many examples or empirical evidence we present to it in hopes those would convince the Islamic party that a syariah system, inclusive of hudud, will not cure away or even minimize corruption, injustice and misrule or for that matter, install a better regime of social justice, proper governance and compassion (as per the Compassion of Allah swt), it will fall on their deaf ears ... ... as PAS firmly believes it's not only its Islamic duty to implement hudud successfully but that it can do what couldn't be done/achieved in other Islamic hudud-ruled countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and even Shia Iran, etc.
In those and any other Islamic countries, you will not find one single Islamic country which can demonstrate those aspired Islamic qualities of social justice, proper governance and compassion, as ironically can be found in many secular nations. Hudud! Aiyah, PAS obviously hasn't heard of the non-Islamic advice given by: (a) Lord Acton who said "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men", or
(b) British PM William Pitt the Elder who advised "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it", or (c) French poet Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine who gave us "It is not only the slave or serf who is ameliorated in becoming free ... the master himself did not gain less in every point of view, ... for absolute power corrupts the best natures." And that's what a hudud-ruled nation would confer on its leaders, total unchallengeable unquestionable absolute power as witnessed in Afghanistan under the Taliban, Iran under the ayatollahs, Saudi Arabia, etc, and even a whiff of that in our own Kedah where PAS has passed legislation stating its fatwa's may not be questioned or challenged.
The common denominator of hudud-ruled countries seems to be the 3-P's, that of 'prohibit', 'persecute' (note, not 'prosecute') and 'punish'. Missing instead are the 3-C's of 'counselling', 'care' and 'compassionate' (a la the Compassion of Allah swt). Nonetheless, for PAS to achieve its religious dream it must first be in (majority) rule, and that in turn relies on two equally important factors. Firstly, it must win for itself mucho federal parliamentary seats, on which it is fairly dependent on non-Muslim votes, to help secure, say, around 60-ish federal parliamentary seats if not more. Every single vote counts a la Julia Fietcher Carney's:
Little drops of water, little grains of sand, make the mighty ocean and the beauteous land
Yes, every non-Muslim vote helps if it is to realize its desire to emerge as the Pakatan component party with the most number of parliamentary seats and thus, with the loudest say in the coalition, in other words, as Pakatan's primus inter pares (first among equals).
Naturally, at this most crucial moment (on the eve of GE-13) it most certainly doesn't want some inflexible (immature, wakakaka) hardcore ulama to say stuff that will frighten away its non-Muslim supporters ... ... non-Muslim supporters whom it has now gained substantially for the first time in its long history, thanks to a combination of the brilliant strategy by its Erdogen faction (one which Pak Haji Hadi Awang joined late, perhaps after his ulama eyes were opened to the 'bigger picture') and the support of its Pakatan allies.
The ABU campaign which I only support with much reservation and many qualifications has also contributed greatly to the pro-PAS non-Muslim supporters' blind rage to get rid of everything and anything BN, even if the consequences can in some cases be far more forbidding. In this, PAS' Erdogan-ists have to be complimented for brilliantly projecting to the non-Muslims that it's an inclusive political party with the welfare of the rakyat foremost in mind. Of course in the process it had to marginalize those obdurately blinkered Myrmidon ulamas within its fold. So basically, it's a crucial juncture in time that calls for the following reminders:
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