Malaysian islamic scholar chandra muzaffar (who has roots in Kerala) talks to toi on modernity and its discontents
You talk about ‘colonisation of the mind’. Could you elaborate?
The colonised mind is a phenomenon that burdens Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It has hindered us from understanding in greater depth our own realities and from propounding solutions to our problems, which are more conducive to our own situation. I shall provide just two examples. In all our spiritual traditions, there is acknowledgement of the intimate link between the human being and nature and the crucial importance of living in harmony with the environment. The development models from the West, which we imitated blindly has no such principle. Similarly, if family is the fundamental unit of society in all our religious philosophies, why didn’t we from the very outset examine the impact of development upon the family?
Faith is a rallying point in many societies. How do you see the future of democracy and secularism in the Muslim world?
Secularism as a concept is somewhat problematic. It is perceived as an ideology that repudiates the role of religion in the public sphere, an ideology that shuns the centrality of God in the life of a nation. This is why many Muslim leaders, including those who are opposed to an ‘Islamic state’, do not describe themselves as ‘secular’. They make it very clear that what they are opposed to is the imposition of Islamic law, as interpreted by the religious elite upon society.
Do you think faith can play any positive role in governance and social engineering?
The underlying values and principles embodied in faith in general, including its notion of the meaning and purpose of life –what one can describe as ‘the eternal wisdom’ – should serve as the guiding compass of governance. Eternal wisdom tells us that greed and selfishness destroy civilisation. Sharing and giving enhance human goodness. Governance should negate vices and nourish virtues. This should be the cherished goal of post-colonial societies.
You have argued for a value-based approach to Quran instead of dogmatic approach…
In a value-based approach to Quran and Islam, justice, truth, love, compassion, freedom, equality and other such values will take precedence over the mere performance of rituals and practices. In concrete language what this means is that loving another human being with a sincere heart is more spiritual than praying continuously. Feeding a poor, desolate stranger is a more virtuous act than performing a pilgrimage to some holy site a hundred times.