Wishful thinking blinds us to dangers of religious fanaticism

As the situation in Thailand deteriorates (see this post and this post), Buddhists are waking up to the reality and dangers posed by fanatics who wish to impose Islamic rule upon them. But in spite of the situation, many Buddhist leaders, such as the Dalai Lama, continue to insist that Islam is a peaceful religion that has been misappropriated by extremists.

I have already commented in this post on one major reason why it is difficult for some Buddhists to conceive of Islam as a religion that is based on very different values and assumptions about the world than Buddhism, and I want to elaborate on that here.

Up until only a generation or two ago, the Islam practised by most Muslims in East and South East Asia had been heavily syncretic, blending elements of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, animism, spiritism, and various indigenous religions with a gentle and mystical interpretation of Islamic beliefs. It was only relatively recently, with the return of a generation of young Muslims educated abroad primarily in the Middle East, and the introduction of Islamic schools funded by Muslim organisations from the heartland of the Muslim world, that East and South Easth Asian Islam has taken a more literalist, exclusivist, and puritan turn. From the perspective of the Buddhists who had been living alongside liberal Muslims for generations, it is the syncretic local Islam that is the "true Islam", and the puritanism introduced from elsewhere that is the abberation.

An article which appeared two years ago in the Asia Times (November 2, 2004) described the situation in southern Thailand as follows:

Ethnic-Malay and Thai Muslims traditionally practice Sufism – Sunni Islam with a mystical, moderate edge – which has prevailed in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand since Islam supplanted animism, Buddhism and Hinduism a few hundred years ago.

"There is the traditional kind of Muslim beliefs common in the region and there are the newer beliefs, reformist ideas brought back by those who studied in the Middle East," says Michiko Tsuneda, a University of Wisconsin cultural anthropologist studying Thai-Malay Muslim communities in southern Thailand.

Note that here it is the hardliners who are referred to as the "reformists", while the liberals are the "traditionalists" — which is the reverse of the situation found in Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

That fundamentalism should appear is not surprising. It is strikingly visible in the men's dress, which is more Afghan or Middle Eastern than Malay, and the face-covering chadors worn by women. Increasingly they can be seen in Tak, Chiang Rai and other parts of the country, not just the south.

[...]

This is yet another example of Islamic imperialism — the replacement of a non-Arab people's culture and history by an Arab-Islamic construction.

Fundamentalism's rise in the Middle East took off early in the 20th century, if not before, but only really started to reach the Malay Peninsula in the 1970s, as cheaper travel allowed more Southeast Asian Muslims to seek higher education in the Middle East. "Usually Islamic schoolteachers, if they've had higher education, they usually studied in the Middle East," says Tsuneda. Some returned preaching fundamentalism. A few became followers while fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.

[...]

"If you hear people talking about these things, they are emotional. From the perspective of the traditionalists, what they have believed all their lives is being attacked. The villagers, the traditionalists, don't really have the social capital to back their point of view. The reformists have higher education, they have been to the Middle East, they can claim they know better than the traditionalists, leaving the villagers in a difficult situation," says Tsuneda.

[...]

And this is precisely the problem. In addition to oil wealth, Middle Eastern Muslim nations can also boast of places of religious significance and historical importance to Islam. The Thai Muslim traditionalists simply do not have the resources to compete with them.

From WorldWide Religious News (April 14, 2004):

Each year, 300 Thai Muslims win scholarships from institutions in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries, while another 200 are funded in other Muslim countries, including Brunei, Sudan and Indonesia.

Some families have sent abroad generations of sons who become imams at mosques and directors or teachers at pondoks. These teachers place more emphasis on study of Arabic and the Quran.

The traditionalists for the most part do not use Arabic except for a few formulaic phrases, and place more emphasis on the Qur'an's role as a talisman than as a book to be studied.

The Middle Eastern influences also have spilled over into everyday life.

Islamic practices in southern Thailand used to be mixed with local traditions. These customs are now being branded un-Islamic by clerics.

Until a few years ago, women rarely wore headscarves. But the foreign-returned Muslims are insisting on purer form of Islam such as "hijab" for women and regular attendance at mosques.

The Bangkok Post ran an article earlier this year (no longer online; mirrored at The Buddhist Channel, August 28, 2006) about the decades-long friendship between Ven. Buddhadasa, a renowned Thai Buddhist monk, and a Thai Muslim named Prayoon Vadanyakul. I think it serves very well to illustrate the kind of Islam that was traditionally practised in Thailand and how South East Asian Muslims have historically understood Islam in the context of Buddhism and other religions.

Bangkok, Thailand -- The roar of bombs. The macabre, pervasive scent of death. In the deep South and across the whole globe, strife in the name of religion is steadily growing.

But there was one remarkable friendship that cut across religious boundaries: The friendship between Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and a devout Muslim named Haji Prayoon Vadanyakul.

The title "Haji" denotes a Muslim who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj [حج].

Born to a Muslim family, Haji Prayoon was well-known among his close associates for his seriousness in practising his religion. But his interests were not restricted to Islam. He was sent to a Christian school, and later made friends with several Buddhists. One day he decided to travel to the Suan Mokkh forest monastery to pay a visit to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. [...]

Note how Haji Prayoon Vadanyakul syncretises Islam and Buddhism in the following passages:

The first meeting between Haji Prayoon and Buddhadasa lasted eight hours.

"The way Than Acharn [Buddhadasa] discussed Buddhism, it sounded as if he was guiding me toward the goal of Islam as well.

"Truth exists in both [religions], but lacking are those who can show that they are one and the same. Most people keep their guard up during [inter-religious] dialogue. That's not true education. They try to discredit others; that's not the path toward mutual understanding."

On that very day, it could be said Haji Prayoon found a guide to lead him toward the same truth. Religious differences did not pose a barrier, but instead served to help him attain the essence of his own faith.

"The kind of Buddhism I learned about was mundane, at the ethical level. Nothing special about it. But having met Than Acharn, read his books and contemplated them, I came to understand the ultimate truth.

"From that day on, I continued to study his books, comparing them to the Koran, and I became more and more enlightened. I didn't come to pay respects to him that often. I only came once in a long while. But there was this deep tie. Every time I visited him, it was like I came to report to him about my spiritual progress. This mutual understanding kept me growing steadily.

"I try to avoid saying that Buddhadasa's views are the right ones. Otherwise some others [schools of thought] might charge me with being presumptuous. They might say, 'How do you know that your teacher is correct?' I'd rather say that his views are sensible and sound. Other people may not agree with me. But his views of Buddhism helped me to understand Islam correctly.

"Being registered as a Muslim, I'm able to expound on the teachings of Islam. But if I didn't grasp the essence of Buddhism through Buddhadasa, I might not be able to grasp the essence of Islam as well. I would have still memorised the teachings that have been passed on by tradition, without discovering any real solution.

It's interesting that he described himself using the words "registered as a Muslim", rather than saying more straightforwardly that he was a Muslim. (In neighbouring Malaysia, a person's religion is printed on his national identity card.)

"The Muslims like to lull their child to sleep by a short phrase - 'La illaha ill-Allah' - the declaration of truth made during prayer. They will keep reciting 'La illaha ill-Allah' on beads - until they achieve a state of mental concentration. Unfortunately, most people do not understand the core meaning; they usually translate it as 'There is no god but Allah.'

And that's because that is the actual meaning of the phrase, in Arabic.

Note the folk practice of using the Islamic profession of faith (the shahâdah [شهادة]) as a lullaby, and the very Buddhist idea that the purpose of the recitation is to "achieve a state of mental concentration".

Haji Prayoon Vadanyakul continues:

"The word 'Allah' consists of three letters: A, L and H. The word 'Araha[t]' consists of the letters: A, R and H. Typically, the L in the West has been transformed to R in the East. Thus 'elephant' becomes 'Erawan'. So does 'Ali' [the Noble] become 'Ariya' as in Ariyasaj [The Noble Truth].

This is just bad linguistics, and would be easily and decisively refuted by someone who had gone abroad to study Arabic.

"I used to discuss these linguistic issues [with others]. Here I repeat it for those who haven't heard about this principle. Allah is in fact Arahat. The meaning of Allah is broader than Illaha, which means 'idols', and La, which means 'no', or 'do not'. Most of the Muslims take Illaha to mean things like sculptures, trees and so on. But I think [the word] refers to the clinging to that very object in their heart. Those statues and trees are in themselves nothing sacred.

"But when people hold on to such things, they become objects of worship. If people do not hold on to them, they cannot be sacred. These things don't have their own power; it's the people who give them power. Therefore, illaha does not refer to those external objects, but to the clinging in human heart. So the sentence La illaha ill-Allah means not to hold on to anything. Such is the state of Allah, or Arahat. How that is literally identical to the heart of Buddhism that professes against any attachment! How couldn't I say then that the heart of Buddhism is one and the same as that of Islam?" [...]

Even if we accept that the Arabic word 'ilah [إله] means an object to which one clings, the formula would still mean "do not hold on to anything except Allah", where, following his interpretation, Allah would mean The One Thing to which one clings.

Haji Prayoon Vadanyakul also leaves out the second half of the shahâdah, which declares that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. I don't see how this can be reconciled with his interpretation of the word 'ilah.

"Than Acharn wants every religion to unite to bring peace to the world. He once told me, 'Khun Prayoon, let's work together to merge religions.' I told him that, on the level of customs and traditions, it might not be possible. For example, at the time of death, some groups want to bury [the body], other groups want to burn [the body]. But at the level of truth, even though we don't merge, they are already one and the same. It is the individual religious teachers who can't arrive at the truth. It is not the case that religions can't reconcile, if we take their purpose as the goal, be it on the mundane or supra-mundane level."

Haji Prayoon was a driving force in propagating Buddhadasa's ideas of inter-religious understanding - through his writing, talks, and donations - to the point that some of his cohorts charged him of being haek khok (literally, "breaking out of the cage; rebellious").

[...]

In the current climate, his coreligionists would undoubtedly have charged him with heresy or apostasy.

"This understanding is not limited to the thing called religion, be it Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Brahmanism, Sikh and so on. It's about understanding dharma that has no other name besides dharma.

Not even the Arabic word deen [دین]?

"The enemy of religion is the absence of dharma. Religions cannot be like men rowing different boats, trying to compete against each other. They must be rowing the same boat and helping each other. We need cooperation to save the world. We have to chip in, not fight and quarrel against one another. But whichever religion one wants to follow depends on one's individual preferences.

"Every time I take part in helping any religion, I just hold to one principle: To spread the rightful dharma among the people, for it's what the world urgently needs - that's all.

"When a monk comes to take up abode in the compound of my house where there are a lot of trees, I only have one request: When asked for some auspicious objects, please give the people Lord Buddha's dharma and not something superstitious like an amulet. Otherwise I have to ask him to leave. Buddhism must be preserved, even in a Muslim house. And we have to do it seriously to shore up Buddhism. [...]

Sadly, with the introduction of more literalist and puritan strains of Islam from the Middle East, the syncretic and liberal Islam of Muslims such as Haji Prayoon Vadanyakul might become a thing of the past. And this trend towards rejecting local traditions in favour of Arab-Islamic imperialism isn't happening only in Thailand, but all across the Muslim world, under the influence of petrodollars.

Many Buddhists continue to believe that Islam is a peaceful, compassionate religion that is being misused by extremists for political ends, because the Muslims that they know are peaceful, compassionate people. But just as Islam should not be judged solely by the actions of some terrorists, it likewise should not be judged solely by the behaviour of some Muslims who practise a syncretic form of the religion. Islam, like any other religion, must be judged based on its own merits and demerits: its teachings, its core texts and how they are interpreted in practice, its history, and so on.

The first component of the Buddha's Eightfold Path (八正道) is Right View (正見). Before anything else, a practitioner of Buddhism must strive to see the world as it is, and not be clouded by wishful thinking such as the desire to think the best of every religion or the assumption that all religions teach the same things.

南無阿彌陀佛