Anwar Ibrahim

Ketua Umum PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mengutuk sekeras-kerasnya pembunuhan ke atas lebih 100 penyokong bekas Presiden Mohamed Mursi dan semua jemaah Masjid Rabaah Al-Adawiyah, Kaherah semalam.

Anwar juga menyifatkan kekejaman itu sebagai tanda hari gelap di Mesir sejak peristiwa “Arab Spring” pada 18 Disember 2010.

“Saya mengutuk pertumpahan darah ini yang dilakukan oleh tentera dan pasukan keselamatan.

“Tentera komander Jeneral Abdel Fattah al-Sisi bersama pemimpin-pemimpin kerajaan haram di Mesir sekarang melakukan pertumpahan darah itu dan keadilan mesti dituntut bela,” katanya yang dipetik daripada kenyataan medianya, lewat malam tadi.

Beliau berkata demikian sebagai reaksi balas terhadap tindakan polis Mesir yang menembak mati penyokong Mursi manakala beratus lagi cedera dalam tunjuk perasaan memasuki hari ke-15 di Masjid Rabaah al-Adawiyah di timur Kaherah, semalam.

Dalam kejadian itu, pemimpin Ikhwanul Muslimin, Murad Mohammed Ali mendakwa tembakan itu dilepaskan ke arah lebih 10,000 penyokong Mursi.

Anwar turut menyeru semua pihak dan negara Islam lain supaya mengutuk tindakan kejam itu dan mendesak ia dihentikan serta-merta.

Civilizational Studies Crucial To Promote Communal Understanding

Posted: 28 Jul 2013 05:32 AM PDT

Globally, civilizational studies are important to promote civilizational dialogue generally between the East and the West and particularly between Islam and the West. This has become crucial because of the growing gap between the two where the lack of understanding of Islam, together with other causes, has fuelled the rise and spread of Islamophobia.
While Chinese civilization including Confucianism and Indian civilization and its related subjects are equally important there appears to be less misperception in the West. The perception of Islamic civilization, on the other hand, has been ravaged by years of orientalist studies calculated to portray it in an unfavourable light compared particularly to Christian civilization. A long history of hostility and war not the least of which sprang from the Crusades contributed to this anti-Islamic fervour. And since 9/11, the distrust and misperception in the West grew exponentially and has contributed greatly to the widening chasm between the two.

Back in 1996, I had argued in The Asian Renaissance that this divide was fed by the erroneous assumption that the various civilizations are monolithic blocs diagonally opposed to each other. I still maintain that they are not. On the contrary, there is much compatibility between Asian values and Western values even as there are differences.

In our Malaysian context, issues of misunderstanding about Islam do impact on race relations in as much as stereotyping of Chinese, Indian and other communities likewise leads to unwarranted racial slurs and racist tendencies. In this regard, there can be no overstating the importance of civilizational studies across the board for all regardless of race or religion. I am in full agreement with any proposal that such a project be undertaken by competent, committed and professional teachers who are not only steeped in the discipline but also free from bias and prejudices. This indeed could be a tall order but if the authorities are serious about instilling better understanding, then they must take into account all suggestions to make it work.

The communal issues affecting the nation may derive some positive impact from a deeper and broader understanding of the various civilizations in Asia but at the end of the day, it is a problem that cannot be addressed just in lecture halls. The discourse should be extended to the public sphere and in this regard, the Islam/Confucianism dialogues that I had initiated during my time in government were intended precisely to foster better understanding between the two civilizations. Needless to say, all these efforts will come to nothing if we continue to have a government which says one thing but does exactly the opposite when it comes to communal relations. The persistent use of the UMNO-BN controlled media to facilitate the incitement of hatred, distrust and animosity is a classic case of this double-faced policy. Similarly, the racial indoctrination of university students by the BTN shows up the hypocrisy of the government in touting its transformation programs.

Finally, to suggest that since Islam had its origin as a religion in the Middle East, its inclusion in the course on Asian civilizations needs to be justified is petty and misconceived. It should be obvious that the term 'Middle East' is not cast in stone and for all intents and purposes a manifestation of the Eurocentric view of looking at the world. Before the First World War, they called it the Near East as, say, opposed to the Far East. From the Asian perspective, we can justifiably call the region West Asia, and semantically that settles the problem. But yet it is misconceived because Islamic civilization studies cannot be confined just to its place of origin regardless whether you call it the Middle East or West Asia. Are we suggesting that the hundreds of millions of Muslims in Pakistan and India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia, not to mention the millions in Central Asia and Xinjiang, are not part of the Islamic civilization?

ANWAR IBRAHIM

BLOG - BLOG PARTI PKR

Ahad, 28 Julai 2013

Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim

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