Table Of ContentIslam and the Question of Reform
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Associate Professor Syed Farid Alatas
Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
Professor Howard V. Brasted
School of Humanities, University of New England
Professor Robert E. Elson
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, University of Queensland
Professor John Esposito
Director, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding, University Professor of Religion and International Affairs,
Georgetown University
Emeritus Professor Riaz Hassan AM, FASSA
ARC Australian Professorial Fellow, Department of Sociology,
Flinders University
Professor Robert Hefner
Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University
Professor Michael Humphrey
Chair, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, School of Philosophical
and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney
Professor William Maley AM
Director, Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, Australian National University
Professor James Piscatori
Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central Asia),
Australian National University
Professor Abdullah Saeed
Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, Director, National
Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne
Professor Amin Saikal AM
Director, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central
Asia), Australian National University
Associate Professor Samina Yasmeen
Director, Centre for Muslim States and Societies, School of Social and Cultural
Studies, University of Western Australia
Islam and the Question of Reform
Critical Voices from Muslim Communities
Edited by Benjamin MacQueen, Kylie Baxter
and Rebecca Barlow
Foreword by Shirin Ebadi
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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First published 2008
Text © Benjamin MacQueen, Kylie Baxter and Rebecca Barlow, 2008
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Islam and the question of reform: critical voices from Muslim communities/
editors Benjamin MacQueen, Kylie Baxter, Rebecca Barlow.
9780522856101 (pdf)
9780522856118 (pbk.)
Includes index.
Bibliography.
Islamic renewal.
Muslims.
Islam and state.
Islam and politics.
Women’s rights.
Baxter, Kylie.
Barlow, Rebecca.
297.27
Foreword
God has made humankind into different races and colours. Different
religions and beliefs guide humans onto the straight path; although
the routes are different, the objective is prosperity for all. Different
cultures and religions have many similar roots. But it is possible for
them to maintain their own unique characteristics while trying to
understand and respect the viewpoints of other cultures, to discover
their similar needs, to implement similar regulations and to follow
them.
Democracy and human rights are the common needs of all cul-
tures and societies. Respect for human life and honour is praiseworthy
in all cultures and religions. Terrorism, violence and humiliation of
humans are condemned in all communities and religions. People
who fail to adhere to human rights and democracy hide behind the
excuse of cultural relativity; these people are tyrants and backward
thinkers who hide behind the guise of culture to mask their own dic-
tatorship. In the name of religion and national culture, they intend to
violate the nation’s rights.
Human rights are the essence of civilisations and different reli-
gions, and can be implemented in all communities and religions.
Therefore, the followers of a certain religion cannot separate them-
selves from the value of human rights and cannot also establish a new
definition of ‘Human Rights’ for themselves. Being a devout Muslim,
I declare that Islam is a religion that accepts the notion and concept
of human rights. We can be Muslim as well as respect human rights.
In the nineteenth meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the
Organisation of Islamic Conference, held in Cairo in 1990, an Islamic
human rights declaration was adopted. If this declaration was con-
sidered as a method for the implementation of international human
rights laws, it is not wrong. However, if we consider this declaration
as an opposition to or exclusion from the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights, I register my dissent from the Islamic Declaration
on Human Rights; because, there is no need for this declaration.
Muslims can follow the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and
this is not opposed to Islam.
We should also remember that if Muslims want to exclude them-
selves from the liability of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights
and establish human rights laws on the foundations of their religion,
it is obvious that they should appreciate this right for other religions
as well. If we had such a situation, then we might have as many as
5000 different types of human rights declarations in the world
because of the number of different religions. This could result in
nothing but the deterioration of human rights. Consequently, we
accept only one universal human rights declaration and we want to
follow this declaration. The world will be in peace only when
humanity follows the human rights laws.
I look forward to that day.
Shirin Ebadi
2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Tehran, Iran
June 2007
vi Foreword
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Contributors ix
Introduction 1
Benjamin MacQueen
1. Abdullahi Ahmed an-Na‘im and the Hermeneutics
of Reform in Islam 7
Benjamin MacQueen
2. Shirin Ebadi and the Question of Women’s Rights in
the Islamic Republic of Iran: Reform or Reconstruction? 21
Rebecca Barlow
3. Muslim Democrats: The Changing Face of Political
Islam in Malaysia 45
Sven Alexander Schottman
4. Defending Religious Freedom in Indonesia: Muslims,
Non-Muslims and Legislation on Houses of Worship 73
Ismatu Ropi
5. Contemporary Islamic Discourse in Europe:
The Emergence of a ‘Euro-Islam’? 94
Kylie Baxter
Index 114
Acknowledgements
This volume is based on discussions held at the ‘New Directions:
Contemporary Muslim Thinkers and the Question of Reform’ work-
shop hosted by Monash University in November 2006. The editors
would like to thank Monash University’s School of Political and Social
Inquiry for funding and hosting this workshop. They would also like
to thank the Monash Asia Institute and the Centre for Arab and Islamic
Studies (Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National
University for their cooperation and participation. In addition, the
editors would like to thank Associate Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh
for his assistance in the organisation of the workshop and this
resultant volume.
Contributors
Rebecca Barlow
Rebecca Barlow graduated with a BA (Hons) in international relations
and global politics from Monash University in 2005. Since 2006, she
has been undertaking her PhD research and worked as a research
assistant focusing on the rights of Muslim women, the international
human rights system and Middle Eastern politics. Rebecca’s PhD
focuses on the Iranian women’s movement, and the implementation
of international human rights law in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Significant focus lies on the ideology and activism of lawyer and Nobel
Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, a devoted Muslim who has advocated for
secular forms of rights-based governance.
Kylie Baxter
Kylie Baxter received her PhD from Monash University in 2008 and a
BA (Hons) in Jewish and Islamic studies at the University of Melbourne.
Her PhD thesis focused on Islamism in the United Kingdom. Kylie has
published widely on Western Muslim communities and the utilisation
of Islamist theory by organisations based in the West. Currently, her
research focuses on Middle Eastern politics and international
Islamism. She is the author of US Foreign Policy in the Middle East:
The Rise of Anti-Americanism (2008).
Benjamin MacQueen
Benjamin MacQueen is an Australian Research Council Post-doctoral
Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the
University of Melbourne. He received his PhD from Deakin University
and a BA(Hons) from La Trobe University. He has published on issues
dealing with Middle Eastern politics, conflict resolution in the Middle
East, US democracy promotion in the Middle East, and relations
between Australia and the Middle East. Currently, his research focuses
on the impacts of US foreign policy in the Middle East, United Nations
reform, and conflict resolution in the Middle East and North Africa.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
Ismatu Ropi
Ismatu Ropi is lecturer at the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
(Ushuluddin) State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah in
Jakarta, and researcher at Center for the Study of Islam and Society
(PPIM) UIN in Jakarta. He has written widely on interreligious
relations in Indonesia, published in scholarly journals and mag-
azines including Islam–Christian Muslim Relations (UK), Hamdard
Islamicus (Pakistan), Studia Islamika (Indonesia) and Inside Indonesia
(Australia). He is author of Fragile Relations: Muslims and Christians
in Modern Indonesia (2000) and is currently researching on the poli-
tics of regulating religion in Indonesia for his PhD degree at the
Australian National University in Canberra. He can be contacted at
[email protected]
Sven Alexander Schottman
Sven Alexander Schottman was born in Hong Kong and grew up in
Germany, Singapore and Malaysia. While living in Kuala Lumpur, he
studied at the International Islamic University before obtaining his BA
in International Studies from DePaul University in Chicago. He gradu-
ated with an MSc in Asian Politics from the School of Oriental and
African Studies. He is currently a doctoral student at the Monash Asia
Institute in Melbourne, studying Islamic movements and contempo-
rary South-east Asian politics. He can be contacted at sasch4@student
.monash.edu.au
x Contributors
