Islam was victim of a narrow interpretation

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia correspondent

Jakarta, August 17 (IslamOnline.net) - Islam is a religion with democratic characteristics that contradict with the dictatorial traits and rigidity many countries with Muslim majority display, Muslim scholars attending an international seminar in Pattani, southern Thailand said Saturday, August 16.

The Indonesian experience with democracy showed that Islam and democracy could cope together and that democracy really worked in the most populous Muslim country, Dr. Jamhari Makruf, an Indonesian scholar, told the Nation Newspaper.

Jamhari, the executive director of the Jakarta-based Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM), deplored injustices against Muslim communities from within and from outside as the main causes that have forced many Muslims to turn to “militancy”.

Pointing to the "appalling" political and economic conditions that exists in Muslim-dominated areas like Palestine, Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq, he said Islam was victim of a narrow interpretation.

Several Muslim scholars participated in the seminar at the Prince Songkhla University in Pattani.

Many of those who spoke during the seminar said “radicalism” was part of a global phenomenon of religious revivalism that has touched Islam in particular but is also occurring in all societies and religions.

"The spread of drugs, gambling and prostitution in Muslim countries has inspired some Muslims to form a kind of movement to revitalize the religion," Jamhari said.

His views are shared by many in Indonesia itself who sees the slow pace of action taken by the authorities to prevent the spreading of such social ills as intolerable.

The Indonesian government has been severely blamed by Muslim orators in Friday prayers in Jakarta for not taking a stronger stance against prostitution, gambling and the widespread penetration of drugs in all classes of the society.

During the seminar in Pattani, the director of public affairs for the Islamic Supreme Council of America, Hadieh Mirahmadi said that the religious studies of Islam was often abused and manipulated by those in power as well as groups motivated by political aspirations.

"Is it any surprise then to see the rise of militant, political Islam as a solution for the masses and to see it galvanize the people against the injustices they suffer?" she asked.

Hadieh said she believed poor economic progress and politics without representation have pushed many Muslims around the world to turn to militancy as the answer to their problems.

"Our sense of powerlessness and desperation has led us to think that only armed combat will bring victory when, in fact, it creates only increased conflict and oppression," she said.

"It is my premise here today that our road map to peace lies in rediscovering our traditional Islamic heritage," she said.

Islam had its Golden Age of civilization when Muslim scholars, scientists and philosophers developed sophisticated theories on representative government and the rule of law that were later adopted by European powers, she added.