Beyond Asabiah

"This reminds me of the words of the late Nurcholish Madjid, the most prominent Muslim intellectual of postcolonial 20th century Indonesia. He once said that “we Muslims still cannot go beyond the logic of tribalism, and we think that being a Muslim is like belonging to a tribe called ‘Muslims’. Muslims still think in these parochial, tribalist terms, and that is why when one person leaves Islam he or she is denouced as a traitor to the tribe. But Islam is not a tribal entity. Being a Muslim is not like belonging to the Blue Tribe or the Green Tribe: it is a state of mind, an existential state of being.”

Whatever the circumstances may be at present, and despite the legal-political obstacles placed before her, Lina Joy is a Christian and she has been a Christian for the past several years. No ammount of slander, abuse or threats of violence will change that. She also happens to be a Malaysian and as Malaysians we should be ashamed that one of our number has been forced to flee into asylum as she can no longer live in her country."

-- Prof. Farish A. Noor