Freedom of Inquiry

"To make a case against Islam, one must possess adequate knowledge about its doctrines and fundamental values. One must study each aspect of the religion to gain understanding of the world of Muslims. Pretty much a typical academic exercise."

Now, the question is: does someone actually have the right to question Islam? Of course, everyone does. We all have the freedom of speech (or should have). But will someone be able to make a sufficient case against Islam? Everybody can say whatever they want, but should we listen to them or not? If someone has a prodigious knowledge in a particular field or subject, he or she has the authority to speak on anything related to that subject. I think everyone knows this. After all, one can't question Einstein's theory if one does not have sufficient knowledge in physics to question it. Or rather, an advanced degree in physics.

Nevertheless, each of us is entitled to our own opinion. You can talk about politics, religion et cetera...don't let anybody deter you from doing so. Let's take politics as an example. You see a lot of people talk so much about politics, in the warungs, kopitiams and so on...but most of these folks don't actually have any credible knowledge about politics. They are not political scientists who spend a huge chunk of their time studying and analysing the state of politics in the country and the world. However, they're allowed their opinion...and at the end of the day all that matters is, their vote will go to whichever party or candidate they choose.

Do we need a degree in politics to talk about politics? Do we need to have a degree in literature to talk about literature? Do we need a qualification in something before we can open our mouth? Is that the issue here?

In the matter of religion however, we are all so passionate in proving who is right...and who is wrong. We do this because we don't want to consider the possibility that we could be wrong. In fact, the problem with most Muslims is that, they believe their religion to be the absolute truth that they won't even consider they might be wrong. Perhaps the words of Frithjof Schuon explain it best: 'The intellectual-and thereby the rational-foundation of Islam results in the average Muslim having a curious tendency to believe that non-Muslims either know that Islam is the truth and reject it out of pure obstinacy, or else are simply ignorant of it and can be converted by elementary explanations; that anyone should be able to oppose Islam with a good conscience quite exceeds the Muslim's powers of imagination, precisely because Islam coincides in his mind with the irresistible logic of things.' (Stations of Wisdom).

Therefore, we aren't at all interested in learning what is right...in learning what the world is all about. I wish Muslims will open their mind to the differences in the world, see everyone as equals and learn to view the world in different perspectives. The reply that I usually get is: we have al-Qur'an and hadiths, why should we look anywhere else? I realise that this is quite a problem in itself. We simply don't care much about what is happening in the world. We are backward in terms of science and technology. Muslim countries have the highest record of human rights abuses in the world. Now, is that the message that Allah and His Prophet want to send to mankind?

I personally believe that we are here in this world not to subjugate others to follow what we believe in. We should address the injustice in the world and work every single day to help those less fortunate and seek to right the wrong that we see. There is not enough love in the world to be shortchanged for hate. It does not matter how big or small our effort is, it is enough that we care to contribute in making a positive change in the world. I heard this quote once and I've been holding on to it ever since: life is not fair, but you can be. What's important to me at least, is to be as helpful and unselfish to others as I can be.

Everyone should be allowed to give their opinion on religion or matters of faith. However, this shouldn't reflect on the rest of the followers of that particular faith. We will argue...but not on the technical aspects of the religion; the definitions, the doctrines and so on. But we are allowed to have questions. And we deserve to be properly answered.

Having an opinion is not wrong. Heck, if the religious can say that atheists can't talk about religion because they don't know anything about it, atheists can also say that the religious can't talk anything about atheism because they obviously don't know anything about it (except those who convert from one to the other, even then, they can only speak from their own experience). We can't be absolutely sure of anything. If we can't speak about something because we don't have enough knowledge about it, then the whole world should be silent.

When someone presents a worthy question, they deserve a proper answer. That's how we learn. Unless we are not interested in learning in the first place. Unless our priority in the first place is to safeguard the truth, a truth which we ourselves hold as the absolute truth, and which others have no right to question because they simply don't have the 'authority'.

The problem is, the rest of the world don't necessarily believe in the same thing we do.