The views of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew about Islam (Bangkok Post, 24 January 2011) do not hold water. The history and reality of the presence of multiculturalism and multiracialism in the Muslim world belies such views. The Jews and religious other communities were much accommodated in the Muslim Spain and other parts of the Muslim world when they were persecuted in the West.
While in contemporary times all religious groups have been mistreated by the authoritarian communist and socialist regimes of the post-colonial era, these regimes are now operating as capitalist for there is much economic benefit in this system – a late realization.
Mr. Lee should know better that religions in Southeast Asia operate more along ethnic lines than along the universal messages contained in these religions, here the common view is that a Malay is a Shafii Muslim, a Thai a Theravada Buddhist, a Filipino a Catholic Christian and Chinese a Confucian, Taoist or Mahayana Buddhist. Hence, criticizing and generalizing about Islam as being un-integrative is unsophisticated.
Such a view is based on Mr. Lee’s partial experience with Malay Muslims in his country. The Malay Muslims of Southeast Asia are the most ethnically conscious component of the Muslim world are thus not different in terms of holding ethnic based views of religion as being done by ethnoreligious groups in Southeast Asia. Thus all religions in Southeast Asia are as dogmatic as Islam here hence isolating Islam as a special case is a one-dimensional view.
In Southeast Asia, the forces of ethnicity and religious dogma reinforce each other rather than other way around by promoting multiculturalism. When I identify myself as a Muslim in Southeast Asia, I am defined as a person who does not eat pork and has four wives. I am sure that if Buddha, Muhammad and Jesus were to ever meet today, they would not talk about pigs and women, they would address more profound issues facing humanity today such as materialism, the reduction of the role of religion in social and moral life and the negative effects of globalized economy on the poor sections of society.
