Sajakkini

The Muslim grapevines are still buzzing over the victory of 16-year old Shabina Begum over her British school’s authorities. The Islamists, predictably, are crowing, forgetting that just mere months ago they were busily lambasting Western governments for tyranny against the Muslims.

France was evil because it banned the wearing of headscarves in public schools, and now Britain is saintly because it allowed one girl to wear what she likes to school. It’s nice to live in such a black and white world where things are so neatly ordered.

“People should not be barred from wearing what their religions demand,” they say, nodding to one another sagely (never mind, for now, the question of who
interprets those religious demands for us Muslims, and whether their interpretations are actually true to the spirit of the Quran).

They forget the sword swings both ways. God only knows what these Islamists would say should a Hindu suddenly demand that she be given the right to wear a saree to school in their strict Muslim countries, in line with her religious beliefs.

RUHAYAT X is the kind of guy you’d happily bring home to your mum for dinner - his left thigh, in particular, is quite succulent and goes very well with a dash of oregano. When he’s not roasting on a spit, he raises chickens in his mum’s backyard.

A headscarf is a headscarf is a headscarf

This case was an extraordinary one. It is British only in name. The head mistress is Muslim. The majority of the governing body of that school are Muslim. The students are 60 percent Muslim. And it’s not like they weren’t given a choice: the female students can wear either the typical British school uniform, or the North Indian salwar khameez and headscarf.

If this sounds familiar to you it’s because Malaysian schools make similar allowances: pinafores or baju kurung and tudung.

So what’s happened over there is the equivalent of a lass in Trengganu suddenly declaring that the baju kurung and tudung is not Muslim enough for her, and she sues the government for the right to wear a full hijab to school.

And suddenly, our local understanding of this case changes drastically.

This was never another typical fight between Muslims and infidels barring our oh so virtuous ladies from covering up. It’s about one Muslim saying that her cultural allowances are not good enough. That she will never be a true Muslim unless she becomes an Arab.

Let’s get one thing straight: given my contention that due to the nature of the Quran, Islam must be in essence a most colourful world, is she wrong in believing that she must wear a hijab? No.

That’s the problem I have with most Muslim liberals. Very often, when they say “liberal interpretation”, what they actually mean is “anything as long as it’s not conservative”. So a Muslim woman who chooses to wear a bikini is applauded because she is cognisant of her individual right, but one who “chooses” to wear a hijab is deemed out-dated or oppressed.

Understand the difference. Women who are led to believe that nothing less than a tudung or a hijab would do and consequently don it out of ignorance are indeed wearing one against the spirit of the Quran. But if she wears one fully understanding why she’s doing it, then good for her.

Liberal interpretation

If we want go into a full discussion then we’d have to re-evaluate this whole idea of having uniforms in schools in the first place. We’ll probably find that the sword there, too, swings both ways: for, isn’t the Islamist trying to impose a uniform on the whole world? So how could an Islamist logically protest the enforcement of uniforms in school? He or she will simply defeat his/her own arguments.

So, does Shabina have the right to say, “I am a Muslim, this is what I must wear?” Yes. But to me, this case is not so much about personal freedom as it is about a rejection of culture and self-identity.

What is it about her culture that Shabina finds so disgusting that she’d rather embrace another? What is it about her culture that makes her believe it is not Islamic enough? The long, flowing, loose-fitting salwar khameez and scarf not Islamic enough to meet the conditions of An-Nur verse 31? Where did she get her religious ideas from?

If it were up to the Islamists, this whole world will become Arab. One God, one religion, one culture. It makes you wonder, then, what God was talking about in the verses that celebrate the diversity of races and culture. So that we may learn from one another? F- that, let’s just have homogeneity. It’s easier to handle (are we seeing a pattern emerging here?).

Melayu rock, apa

In truth, it’s not just an Arab problem. Very often, in Malaysia, when one embraces Islam, it is not known as becoming a Muslim, it is known as becoming a Malay (”masuk Melayu”). I find this idea of having to cast off your cultural heritage disturbing, because it presupposes the superiority of one over another.

I know why it happens, of course: it’s to do with the whole idea of hijrah, of leaving your ignorant self and becoming a new person. I just don’t know why it should be that way. If your Chinese name had meant “Beautiful Flower Dazzling in the Valley”, why would you then have to change it into something that is alien to you? Because God doesn’t understand Chinese and therefore won’t allow you to enter heaven with a non-Arabic name as you would just mess things up?

On the programme ‘Ehwal Islam’ one Thursday night, among the three-person panel was an Indian man, wearing full baju Melayu and songkok. Nothing wrong with that, sure. But how much more wonderful it would have been if he had turned up in a kurta!

If you had wanted to show the universality of Islam, that would have been it.

But that’s just not how things are done, is it. A regular host of that programme used to be a young Chinese convert. Who always turned up in yet another full Melayu regalia, complete with buttons. I, on the other hand, have never had full buttons in my baju Melayu in my adult life. In fact, until my sister’s wedding last year, I never even owned a baju Melayu for more than 10 years.

“More Melayu than the Melayu.” This is a recurring theme, it seems: an Iraqi man I met once remarked that Malay Muslims seem to be more Arab than he. The guy was in Jalan Bukit Bintang, wearing long shorts, T-shirt and a cap.

It’s a cancer that’s slowly eating up the Muslim body. Eventually it will become a problem for non-Muslims, too.

Shoot me for thinking

To me it’s a sign of a deep insecurity (although the Islamists would not see it that way, I’m sure: to them, it is a sign of a people reclaiming their identity in the world. Which is fair enough, but does that identity have to be so narrow?)

Something is desperately wrong with this picture we have before us. Malay women used to go around the house berkemban in batik sarongs. Whenever they needed to step out, they would simply pull another sarong over their heads. Does this meet the requirements of An-Nur 31? I say yes. But not to the Islamists, probably.

No. A good Muslim is not just a good Malay, it is a good Arabised Malay.

May God help us find a way out of this madness.