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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Fatwas must be based on reality, says Dr M

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says there is a need for fatwas on the many challenges facing Muslims. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, November 11, 2014.Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says there is a need for fatwas on the many challenges facing Muslims. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, November 11, 2014.
Fatwas must be rooted in study and debate, not only Islamic teachings, but in reality, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said as a Malaysian court's decision that a ban on cross-dressing was unconstitutional continues to stir discussion.
He said fatwas by religious scholars were inadequate and ignored by many because of different interpretations on various Islamic injunctions.
"We need to have fatwas on the many challenges facing Muslims. But the fatwas should only be made after a prolonged study and debate by all disciplines, including the realities of life," he said in his keynote address when officiating the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2014 today.
"At the moment, we have not debated this except for religious scholars saying that these are sinful things which Muslims cannot accept.
"But additionally, we need experts in other fields to provide other inputs and reasons besides just saying that lesbians, bisexuals, gays and transvestites are wrong and sinful.
"We need to have experts in other fields, experts in sciences and in societal behaviour to challenge the liberalism of the West," Dr Mahathir said.
During the press conference after his speech, the medical doctor-turned-politician responded to a question about the Court of Appeal's recent judgment declaring as unconstitutional a provision in the Negri Sembilan Shariah Criminal Enactment prohibiting a man from posing as a woman.
Dr Mahathir said transgender people were born "unsure of their gender, they may look like a man but are actually women, and vice versa".
"Their feelings are different," he said, from the sex they were born with.
State Islamic laws were formulated against cross-dressing following a fatwa to the same effect in the early 1980s.
Citing the French Revolution as an example, Dr Mahathir said that while the West developed its ideas of democracy, liberalism and human equality through uprisings and turmoil, Muslims continued to rely on their rulers and religious teachers.
"Throughout all these evolutions and revolutions, Muslims did not play a part. We believed that our absolute monarchs and strongman governments would not be affected.
"As such, no thoughts were directed at these new ideas on governance and how Muslims should deal with them." Dr Mahathir said.
"Muslim thinkers made no concerted effort to understand what was going on as there was a naive belief that Muslims would reject ideas which were contrary to the teachings of Islam."
Another reason for divisions among Muslims, he said, was because of different interpretations of the Quran.
"The Quran is perfect, it is not wrong, but the interpretations can be wrong or inaccurate and over time, they can become irrelevant, unable to cope with new ideas and realities.
"We have a need to do some heart searching, some revisions about the current teachings of Islam. We must go back to the real source of our religion, to the Quran."
The Kuala Lumpur Summit 2014 is an international gathering of Muslims to discuss current issues form an Islamic perspective.
- TMI

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