No doubt Islam had Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Father of Modern Turkey, the seat of the Ottoman Empire, who attempted to impose the separation of church and state. Atatürk, however, although viewed as a reformist by those from the west, is viewed as a traitor by most Muslim scholars. In fact, people like the PAS President, Abdul Hadi Awang, label Atatürk as an apostate and one of Islam’s greatest traitors.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

(Malaysian Digest) - Do not politicise Islam, as it can lead to disunity.

This was the message sent out by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who said Islam should instead be placed at the highest level so that a lot of problems faced by the Muslim community could be overcome.

"We must not politicise the religion, as Islam is not politics.”

"If politics is made to be above Islam, the Muslim community will be confronted with a lot of problems, causing disunity which today is the source of the community's weaknesses and the enemies of Islam belittling the religion,” he said in his speech at the at the Quran reciting completion and breaking-of-fast at the Tan Sri Ainuddin Wahid Mosque, Taman Universiti in Skudai, here, yesterday.

Najib said the Barisan Nasional administration has always prioritised Islam in its governance of the country, and adhered to the requirements of the religion.

"We developed our administration based on syariah and that is the Islamic requirement for us and among the five things we have done is looking after Islam, and that is why Malaysia is known as an Islamic country.”

"We protect the Islamic faith and character, promote the religion, provide Islamic infrastructure and Islamic law and so on," he said.

Najib said the government’s success in managing Malaysia well, despite facing numerous challenges, was recognised by other Islamic nations to the extent that Malaysia is now the model for a successful Islamic country.

However, he stressed that the government has never neglected the welfare and interest of Malaysians, as it has extended numerous forms of aid, which are not available to people in other countries.

"Last night, I was in Bachok, Kelantan where I found out that there is even aid for disturbance from wildlife, for instance, you can get aid if you're bitten by a snake. Where else in the world, a government does this?”

"This is a government which takes care of the overall welfare of the people, where we want an Islamic concept and the same time, we want progress and development.”

"We don't want Islam to be linked to poverty and weakness but to be linked to strength and empowerment because Allah loves people who are successful," he said.

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Here we go again. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is preaching Islam to Malaysians. I doubt, however, the ulama’ (religious scholars) would agree with Najib’s prognosis on Islam -- if they are honest ulama’, that is. Either Najib has the wrong impression of Islam or he is indulging in wishful thinking.

To understand the present, we need to go back and look at the origins, the origins of religion, that is. Let us start with Christianity and I am going to refer to Britain for purposes of this discussion.

Britain used to be pagan. In the beginning the druids ruled Britain and the Britons worshiped many gods. 50 years or so before the birth of Christ, the Romans invaded Britain and brought their gods to the island, also paganism. This triggered a struggle between the old English gods and the new Roman gods.

Around 400-500 years later, the Romans left Britain and the Saxons and Franks began to migrate to Britain in hordes, as did the Vikings. They too brought their gods. Invariably, Britain saw 500 years of wars between the many kings, as Britain did not have one king but different kings ruled the different regions (at that time there were more kings and gods than virgins in Britain).

In 313, the Emperor Constantine granted the Christians freedom of worship. Thereafter Christianity began to rapidly spread and it was only a matter of time before it reached Britain. Some say Constantine died a Christian while others say he died a pagan (only he would know).

The Britons and Saxons, however, resisted Christianity and it was not until the Christians took up arms that paganism was defeated and replaced with Christianity. Hence Christianity was spread through the use of force.

Around that time, Islam began to establish itself in the Arabian Peninsular and it too began to spread at the point of a sword, just like Christianity had done over 300 years before that. Hence both Islam and Christianity spread the same way, through conquests and persecution.

Eventually, Christendom saw the separation of church and state. But this did not happen overnight. It took more than 1,000 years for that to happen. Islam, however, although it took the same route as Christianity to spread, did not go the same route of separation of church and state, as Christianity had.

In short, both Islam and Christianity started the same way, by the use of force. However, they did not both end up the same way. Christianity the church ‘split’ into two entities while Islam the adeen remained one entity.

No doubt Islam had Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Father of Modern Turkey, the seat of the Ottoman Empire, who attempted to impose the separation of church and state. Atatürk, however, although viewed as a reformist by those from the west, is viewed as a traitor by most Muslim scholars. In fact, people like the PAS President, Abdul Hadi Awang, label Atatürk as an apostate and one of Islam’s greatest traitors.

The notion of separation of church and state is not an acceptable concept in Islam. And any ‘true’ Muslim would agree with this. To disagree would make you a deviant Muslim or a Muslim who is defying God’s command and who is violating the Qur’an.

As I said, Najib either has the wrong impression of Islam or he is indulging in wishful thinking. Islam has not yet gone the way of Christianity in being able to accept the concept of separation of church and state. Will that time ever come? I don’t know but for sure it is not going to happen in our lifetime -- so don’t hold your breath or else you might turn blue.

Now, if you are an honest Muslim, you will acknowledge this fact. To argue otherwise means you are not being honest and are trying to mislead the people. So, Najib, are you an honest person or not? And if you can understand this then you might be able to understand PAS as well.