by FARAH ADEED
“A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes, will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.” — John Stuart Mill
Apostates and blasphemers are beheaded in Saudi Arabia, lynched by angry mobs in Pakistan and publicly hanged in Iran. The Malaysian government is mulling over amending the current Sharia law to propose punishments against social media users for insulting Islam and “promoting the LGBT lifestyle.” In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s senior commander Waheedullah Hashimi has made it clear that “there will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country.” He has also clarified that “we will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is Sharia law and that is it.”
These are all Muslim-majority countries. Therefore, one is justified in asking a simple question: what is wrong with the Muslim world?
For the sake of understanding better, we may raise a set of some important questions to understand the rise of authoritarianism and Islamist movements in the Muslim world. What is Sharia? Is it an article of faith to implement Islamic laws to ensure the supremacy of Islam? Is Islam inherently anti-modernity and anti-democracy? Does Islam propose the establishment of a state to implement Sharia laws? Is there any compulsion in Islam? Can Muslims be liberal?
It is not an easy task to grapple with these ideas and challenging questions in the face of rising extremism in the Muslim world. We have recently seen protests by religious parties in Pakistan and Indonesia under the pretexts of various religious (Islamic) reasons which further complicate the situation.
Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish-American scholar of Islam, recently wrote two books to address these questions and offer an alternative view. The first, Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance, is an insightful take on the origins of intellectual stagnation in the Muslim world and an open invitation to re-examine Islamic thought, to create an inclusive, liberal world.
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