Where are the Islamic scholars and moderate reformists in Malaysia?

[superadmin]

Malaysia is at a crossroads with Islam at the center of the issue.

Will Malaysia go down the Taliban road or will it go the road of a progressive and inclusive nation?

One road will lead to a priesthood of Islam where all thoughts, words and deed are governed by ustaz with a narrow educational background who thinks just because they know Arabic, it is enough for them to be interpreters of God’s words.

This theocratic governance will usurp our parliamentary democracy in place of an <em>ulamak</em> based central power that will determine what we eat, wear and which direction to shit.

Or will Malaysia reclaim its pre-Reformist Islam direction of moderation, progressive thought, freedom of expression, artistic creativity, community heritage and a membership of a global coexistence instead of a group of frogs under the tempurung?

The Islamic Reform effort was started by groups of professionals in multi-disciplinary fields of science, arts, medicine, engineering and others along with a few <em>ustaz</em> of Islamic education to form the many entities that we have today that served an ‘Islamic Movement.

The Angkatan Belia Islam or ABIM was the first known Reformist group that ushered in a new wave of Islam that even affected the politics of Umno.

Then came the less known and secretive IKRAM which before that was said to be some radical student group from UK called IRC which later on was renamed as JIM.

I began my Islamic Reformist supporter since the days of my education in the US where the Malay students who called themselves the Malaysian Islamic Study Group opened a new world of Islam as part of a social, political and economic life.

From the work of Professor Dr. Ismail Raj Al-Faruqi, I was introduced to the Islamization of Science and other Knowledge.

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