The policing of private lives
Today, the fabric of Malaysian society has been distorted by the growing power of religious authorities.
PICTURE the following scenario. It is Sunday night, and you have your friends over at your residence for dinner. This dinner is a rare time for everyone to get together, let their hair down and have a little bit of revelry.
Your attendees are dressed to the nines. It is an occasion to celebrate camaraderie, after all.
Over plates of fantastic briyani and engaging conversations, you entertain by allotting each guest a country and ask them to represent the said country in a mock “Miss World” pageantry. For social impact, your guests play to fundraise for your favourite charity through this game.
The rest of the dinner attendees cheer for their favourite country to win. As most of your guests are Malaysians, the loudest cheer is for “Miss Malaysia”. It is all in good fun. Towards the end of the evening, without as much as a greeting of peace, the religious authorities suddenly appear at your door. They come into your house, your private residence, without invitation and seemingly with a holier-than-thou attitude.
Seeing the dinner game, they claim that you are doing something un-Islamic and against a fatwa. They shout at you for not co-operating with them, simply for asking, why they have come.
They proceed to herd all your dinner guests into the living room of your house, locking everyone in. They then confiscate all the door gifts you provided for your guests, the cutlery, the floral arrangements, the small cards at every seating – all the evidence of your dinner party as ‘proof ’ that you have disobeyed the law.
Your guests are scared, as are you. All that you can think of is you have done nothing wrong; that only God can judge your sins.
You are then taken into “custody”, but first, brought to a police station for them to lodge a report against you.
You are unsure of your own rights in this situation, as the authorities do not clarify under which enactment you have committed an offence.
Lawyers present at the police station who try to assist you with your rights under civil law are shouted down by the religious authorities, denied their attempt to defend you and threatened with arrest for obstructing the work of public officers.
You are then detained overnight in the religious authorities’ premises, supposedly to assist investigations. Thankfully, you are released the next day.
However, your release comes with a charge for having committed a terrible offence, that you had disobeyed God by not co-operating with them. They, who are human beings created by God, as are you.
Such religious policing previously was only familiar to me through having read books that came out of Iran and Afghanistan. Specifically, these are stories that can be found in the graphic novel Persepolis and Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner.
Last Sunday, a similar story unfolded in our city of Kuala Lumpur.
As a Muslim, I was raised to be kind to fellow human beings. My upbringing was conservatively religious; I was raised to strive to do better in my own faith in God, rather than projecting the supposed rules unto others.
Growing up in Penang taught me that my neighbours might be of different religions, or of the same religion but practise it differently, yet they are all good neighbours. Many times, they have extended kindness to my family and me and we in return extend the same. We live, and let live. Today, the fabric of Malaysian society has been distorted by the growing power of religious authorities. Our liberty to think and express ourselves is shrinking; some of us Malaysians are denied the rights supposedly enshrined in our Federal Constitution.
Khalwat and other “religious” raids are conducted in Malaysia, despite the historical evidence of Caliph ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab’s decision on privacy. I quote, “The Government acts on what is evident; one who exhibits good character should not be suspected of anything but good; for the inner secrets of people are only known to God Most High” ( Al-Tabari, Tarikh, V, 26.)
Further, the Quran prohibits against spying ( al-Hujurat, 49:12) and clarifies that none of us carry the sin of another ( Fatir, 35:18). I provide the Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation of these verses in full below.
( Al-Hujurat, 49:12) O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin: And spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay, ye would abhor it... But fear Allah: For Allah is OftReturning, Most Merciful.
( Fatir 35:18) Nor can a bearer of burdens bear another’s burdens if one heavily laden should call another to (bear) his load. Not the least portion of it can be carried (by the other). Even though he be nearly related. Thou canst but admonish such as fear their Lord unseen and establish regular Prayer. And whoever purifies himself does so for the benefit of his own soul; and the destination (of all) is to Allah.
We must no longer take our liberties for granted and allow the policing of our private lives. It is time for us to understand Islam spiritually and undergo an intellectual renaissance to its original spirit of compassion, kindness and mercy.
After all, are these not the very foundation of our humanity?