Book Review Orientalism

Orientalist is the one who researchers, teaches and writes about the Orient. The Orient usually refers to the East, particularly Middle East since this is the object of research that European really like to focus on. It is also a style of thought that makes distinction between the socio-culture of the East and the West. Understanding the history and trend of Orientalism, we can understand how the West sees Asia and the effect of their policy in the former colonies.

Edward Said elaborates that Orientalist creates an idea of Orient that differs from their actual reality. This is because the Western scholars themselves did not involve with local society and this creates misunderstandings. This supposedly academic venture is actually important for political hegemony of the West towards the colonies. The discovery made by those academics strengthens the perceptions of the West that the West is better than people in the East. This book also shows that the West had learned about the Orient very systematically with huge investment in institution. It is not just a fantasy created by certain people. 

The study of Orientalism had been done primarily by the British and France. They have the best network of academic studies pe-20^th century and their ideas continue to influence American foreign policy. Their research has amassed huge historical work on the Orient, and eventually being used by the modern Asian countries to understand about their own history. 

The study of Orient also undergone changes since it was very dependent on the Western intellectual development. Sometimes their object of studies, which is Orient itself does not undergone changes and their society still remain the same. The author also acknowledges that there should be alternatives of how to learn from other cultures since Orientalism is a way of learning other cultures but in a repressive way. 

In relations to my research which is political changes, I would like to understand how Orientalism had affected the political structure in the East. Are there any leaders in the East that engage with any Orientalist in the past? Did we learn anything from Orientalist when they come and study about our society or we just dismiss them as insignificant? We should also try to unravel the influences of Orientalist in our local academic university especially older university such as Malaya University. Our own teaching of history in schools and university should be examined to make sure that it is not influenced by Orientalism.

Malaysian academics should appreciate the works of Edward Said since he writes a lot about the history and influence of British Empire to the colonies. Since he himself come from British Mandated Palestine, the area that still in conflicts decades later because of the British foreign policy after World War I. Malaysia society and nation had greatly influenced by the political and economic structure that being left by the British colonization in Malaya and Borneo.

Book Review Islam Dalam Sejarah Dan Kebudayaan Melayu

This book was written as a response toward historians who obsess on trivial facts. In the learning of a history of a nation, we need to separate between what events that change the course of a nation. There were a lot of facts in learning history. If we take account all of it, then it will be hard to learn about the history itself and we can’t determine which event or changes that help shape this nation.

This book talks about the arrival of Islam in the Malay Archipelago. Islam that spread from Arab peninsula had change the center of the world. At that time, two biggest empires which is Roman Empire at Constantinople and Sassanid Dynasty at Persia was at war with each other and contesting territory. Roman Empire also at that time had been in declined because of the incursion made by the Germans. But although they are the conqueror, they eventually adopted Roman culture and the religion of Christianity. This is one of the evidence that culture is more important than strong military and technology. 

Even though Hindu-Buddha had arrived at Malay Archipelago before Islam, only Islam remained embedded in the Malay culture. Hindu religion was only embraced at surface level by the locals. They are not interested with the philosophy of the religion. They only interested with art that offered from India. The art and literature was used by the upper class in the palace as amusement. Meanwhile, a great intellectual works such as Nagara Kertagama by Prapanca has only one copy in Javanese Keraton. Not only that, the Hindu-Buddha religion was not practiced by the common people. 

Several western scholars such as Van Leur and Snouck Hugronje had said that Islam is not influential in the Malay society. Their parameter is that only in the time of Hindu-Buddha the Malays had built a great architecture such as Borobudur. But the writers argued that we can see the influence of Islam in the language and the way of thinking of the Malays. This influence is much more embedded in Malay psyche. Meanwhile all the buildings was actually abandoned by the Malays for hundred years and only excavated later by the British.

My studies will be focusing on changes especially on political changes. From this book, we can see that changes can only be done through mind and hearts, and not surface level. Changes also will take years to be rooted on the society. It also must be accepted by all strata of society, not only the upper class in palaces. The religion of Islam is the only religion that continued to be practiced by Malay society across Archipelago, from the north in Pattani until southern Islands of Indonesia. Even though the colonialism by Dutch and British had changes the political structure, but society still holds on to Islam, and Christianity could not break into the Malay society.

Review Buku The Future of Islam by Prof John L. Esposito

The prominent intellectuals from United States, Professor John L. Esposito had written about a way forward for Muslim and the West relationship in his book title, The Future of Islam. It was published in 2010, around the time when President Barack Obama visited Egypt and promised to mend the relationship between the US and the Muslim world. The relationship had been tarnished by 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda that destroys New York Word Trade Center and Pentagon. It was escalated by President Bush when he decided to attack Afghanistan and Iraq unilaterally as a response to destroy Al-Qaeda and the so-called Weapon of Mass Destruction that is being built by Saddam Hussein.

Ignorance of the West towards had always been there and the 9/11 attacks makes the ignorance even worse. This is because they only see Muslim as homogenous, backwards and only living in Middle East. They completely forget about the existence of Muslim in Africa and Southeast Asia that have different culture and image. Esposito also criticized those who only learn about the Holy Scriptures and history of Muslims in the past, but forgetting to understand the reality of Muslim living in the current world. They also have regular problems such as economics, politics and social that needed to be addressed. They also have identity crisis and problems with accommodating their religions with modernity. All of this contributing to diversity in how Muslims think and behave.

Chapter 1, which entitled The Many Faces of Islam and Muslims touched on the fact several Westerns paints Islam as the other. They prefer to regards relationship between Muslims and the West as the clash of civilization. They also have a very negative perception towards Muslims such as Islam is not a religion that can accommodate democracy and pluralism. This also reflected in the fact that a lot of Muslim majority country is authoritarian and has weak civil society. 

The image of Islam is also very intertwined with Arab, while ignoring the fact that Arabs only constituted one-fifth of Muslims. A lot Muslim can be found in the country such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia. Islam also started becomes the object of research and studies especially by American after the Iranian revolution. Because of the portrayal in the media that terrorist is usually Muslims, this makes 46 percent of American sees Islam in a negative view and the cause of terrorism, according to Washington Post/NBC News poll.

Islamophobia is the term introduced by Runnymede Trust in 1997 as prejudice on Muslims physical appearances as well as intolerance to their religious belief. Kofi Annan himself, then UN Secretary-General urged the world community to unlearn stereotype that media had helped propagate, and strives to accommodate different cultures in our own society.

Another aspect that is important to note about Muslims nowadays is their situation as a minority especially in America and Europe. Almost 50 percent of Muslims in America is on the age of youth, which is from 18 to 40. Investment on American Muslim youth could help nurture the future leadership of America. Muslims women are also very much educated and have wages as equal as Muslims men. But the downside is that African-American Muslims still left behind and have low incomes. This contributed towards the inequality between different ethnic of Muslims.

American Muslims also reportedly satisfied in their living, which is account for 41 percent. They believe that to have a good living, they need to work hard. But at the same time, because of the Islamophobia, they are being singled out because of their belief. There is also a sense of alienation and pessimism about the future. The political inclination of Muslims is very diverse, which 38 percent claims to be moderate, 29 percent liberal and 25 percent conservative. This resembles the political inclination among Jews in America. Although in 2008 presidential election, majority Muslims voted for Obama.

Prof Esposito also shared on his experience when starting his studies on comparative religion, he surprised that Islam has a lot of similarities with Judaism and Christianity. This is because a lot of biblical figures were also a prophet in the Quran such as Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses) and Sulaiman (Solomon). In fact they are revered among Muslims. Muslims sees that their religion is a continuation from Judeo-Christian and considered the Prophet Muhammad’s message as a final revelation from the same God. He also questioned why the West intellectuals don’t want to integrate Islamic history and tradition into European traditions.

In Islam, there are 5 pillars which most Muslims perform everyday such as prayer. But the most misunderstand concept in Islam especially by the West is Jihad. The literal meaning of Jihad which is struggle can refer to Muslims struggle to lead an honest and virtuous life. At times it can be violent if there are enemies that wanted to destroy Muslims. Which had happened in the times of Prophet itself.

Chapter 2 of the book discuss on God in Politics. The chapter focuses on the history of Muslims and United States from 20^th century onwards.  Two biggest conflicts between Muslims and American government is the Iranian Revolution on 1979 and 9/11 attacks. The fear of political Islam in the 1980s has contributed into United States trying to undermine anything named Islam. After the revolution, another conflict that happened such as the assassination of Anwar Sadat by Palestinian sympathizers. There is also a Lebanon civil war that effected the Israel-Palestine peace process.

The resurgence of Islam in the 1970s had also contributed into a new image and ways of thinking that differ from the West modernity. The revival had proposes an Islamic education, clothes and even financial institution. This idea eventually picks up by Islamic country such as Malaysia and Pakistan. The Muslim had become more religious and sees only Islam as strong identity, compare to Socialism or Liberalism. This also a continuation from the frustration of Muslims on the defeat of Arabs in 1967 war with Israel. Added to this is the fact that Muslim countries still behind in terms of education and economics and the repression of the dictators that cozy up with the West and abandoning their country people.

The Progress of Islamization of Knowledge

The idea for Islamization of knowledge had started in the 1970-s and start spreading among Muslim intellectuals and activists around 1980-s. It was a shift in identity for Muslims especially after the rise of Muslim states such as Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia and decolonization by British, Dutch and French Empires in Asia and Africa continent. It is also an evidence of the increasing young and upcoming Muslims studied in the West and start going back to their home countries to help develop it, especially in the education sector. They don’t want to copy exactly what the schools and universities in the West because they see that values in the West is contradictory with Islamic values.

One of the first proponents of Islamization of Knowledge is Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, who presented paper on Islamization and Desecularization at Makkah Educational Conference 1977. Islamization was defines by al-Attas as the liberation of man first from from magical, mythological, animistic, national-cultural tradition, and then from secular control over his reason and his language. Al-Attas emphasize heavily on language especially the Arabic language because it was the language that the Holy Quran was revealed to human through Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. He said that language, thought and reason are closely interconnected and are indeed independent in projecting to man his worldview or vision of reality. 

Another proponent of Islamization of knowledge is Ismail Raji’ al-Faruqi. He sees that the most important aspect in Islamization is Tawheed which is the basic and unifying principle of Islam. Through Tawheed, a Muslims man views the reality, truth, the world, space and time, human history and destiny. Allah as the Creator of Nature and knowledge, gives man His knowledge which is absolute and universal. Several fundamental principles of Islamizing modern knowledge are the Unity of Allah, the Unity of Creation, the Unity of Knowledge, the Unity of Life and the Unity of Humanity.

An Iranian scholar, Seyyed Hussein Nasr also touches on the issue of Islamization of knowledge. He talks about scientia sacra, which is science as knowledge must not be devoid from the sacred. It is the application of metaphysical principles to the macrocosm as well as microcosm, the natural as well as human world. Knowledge is sacred and is from God, and can only be understood through revelation and intellectual reasoning. 

Muhammad Kamal Hassan in 2014 talks about Islamicisation of Human Knowledge. It was to provide an alternative to the secular knowledge and modern civilization. The secular environment in education had created a bias toward any religion or faith. To Islamicize knowledge, a critical analysis should be done on the concept of Tawheed and ethics in Islam. The word Islamicize means that it was to conform and being in harmony with religion instead of being understood as converting people to Islam. It was also can be construed as a larger concept that anything could be connected to Islam and complies with the teaching and principles of Islam.

The method of Islamization practiced by al-Attas is that first, we must separate all Western elements (Desecularization) in the current existing knowledge that had been learns by Muslims for decades. Secondly, the knowledge then infused with Islamic elements and key concepts were redefined according to Islamic worldview. Several concept in our knowledge that had been corrupted by Western such as the nature of man (insan), religion (din), knowledge (‘ilm and ma’rifah), wisdom (hikmah), justice (‘adl), right action (adab) and university (kuliyyah).

One of the institutions created by al-Attas to further the project of Islamization of Knowledge is International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC). Al-Attas was not only the first director and chair of Al-Ghazali, he also regularly teaches at the main hall especially on the religion of Islam. His understanding of the world is different from others, where he sees that this world is not a dichotomy against the religion of Islam and the hereafter. The world is merely a stage and preparation for eternal life later. The universe is like a book and needed to be read. But only looking at words is not enough, we need to understand the meaning behind it. This is the same with all the creation that we see in this world. Every creation has purpose and meaning. This kind of teaching elevates the understanding of Islam teaches in this institute. It goes beyond the usual studies on fiqh and tafsir.

Al-Faruqi methods also involves learning both the Western and Islamic tradition. But for al-Faruqi, Muslim scholars that learned the knowledge needed to be detecting the Islamic legacy in each discipline. This method opens for discovery of Islamic scholars contribution in the past to the rise of enlightenment in the West. Meanwhile, the Islamic tradition itself needed to be re-examined their shortcomings. Some aspect of the knowledge needed to be updated in accordance to the reality of the world today. In the future, a Muslim that was trained in both the West and Islamic tradition,  understands their criticism will create a new discipline that have strong Islamic values in it.

Al-Faruqi also created International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) with prominent scholars such as Taha Jabir al-Alwani and Ahmad Totonji. They have more practical method by becoming a network of Muslim scholars around the world that agree to disseminate the Islamize knowledge to Muslim ummah. IIIT published a lot of intellectual books and textbook for students to be used in the university. This books is not only used by Islamic studies students, but it was also widely used by students is sciences courses. This is because they wanted lecturers and students to infuse the Islamic values in any knowledge they teach and learned. 

The efforts of IIIT members such as Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman and Anwar Ibrahim help formed International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in 1983. This university is unique in a sense that the Islamic studies course was taken as a double major course with Human Sciences. This is an attempt to develop new scholars that has strong Islamic tradition and understanding of the modern sciences. This duality provide students with a wide scope of knowledge and mastery in contemporary tool.

Nasr also writes about the importance of mastering the Western thought and try to understand their philosophical contradiction. There is no problem with the knowledge itself, but their philosophical roots. Only by mastering the sciences, the West will heed the Muslim voice and we can start infusing the Islamic values. The scholars also need to have strong spiritual and Islamic worldview. This is to prevent the Muslims themselves to become too involved in the Western tradition and deviated from Islamic teachings. 

Nasr also have the same idea with al-Attas which is that language plays main role in knowledge dissemination. He regrets that most Muslim countries was colonized in their mind through using the European language and abandoning the native language that had strong Islamic roots. The usage of this native language is also important in learning about modern sciences to free Muslim from relying to Western technologies. This is why Muslims in the earlier centuries rigorously translate all Greek intellectual works to Arabic because they understand the effect of language to the mind of Muslims.

The biggest criticism of Islamization of knowledge is that certain scholars argue that the body of knowledge itself is not wrong, but it becomes wrong when it is misused. So it was the question of ethics. The word Islamization itself could distance non-Muslims, and can be seen as denying them to the knowledge itself. This is why some scholars argue that the most important things to is to integrate both knowledge of the West, Islamic and other Eastern traditions so that the knowledge itself will become more inclusive and globalize.

References

Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman, Revitalizing Higher Education in the Muslim World, 2007.

Febri Priyoyudanto, Model of Islamization of Knowledge; Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Ismael Raji al-Faruqi, And Fazlur Rahman, 2013.

Mohd Asham Ahmad, How Islam was Taught at ISTAC, 2016.

Muhammad Shawal bin Abdul Rashid, Islamization of Human Knowledge: A Critical Analysis, 2014.

Yahaya Musa Yusuf, Seyyed Hussein Nasr on Islamisation of Knowledge.