RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

                In the last few years, religious pluralism has spread to the entire world including in our own country Malaysia. Recently, a lecture on religious pluralism by Opposition Leader of PKR (PartiKeadilan Rakyat) or People’s Justice Party at the London School of Economics, expounded the concept of religious pluralism which he proposed to be adopted by Malaysia.  This issue have made a big deal for Malaysian government for as Islam isthe official religion in Malaysia.

The term pluralism can be diverse into many meanings, politic pluralism, religious pluralism, cosmic pluralism, and cultural pluralism. The root word in pluralism is actually ‘Plural’ which means many or more than one. Thus, religious pluralism means the acceptance of the concept that all religions with mutual exclusive truth claims are equally valid. As the name of worldview according to which one’s religion is not a sole and exclusive source of truth and making it at least some truths and true values exist in other religions.  For example, those who believe in pluralism would probably say that Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity have the same purity in their religions in terms of access to truth and effectiveness in salvation.

 To make it clearer on the meaning of pluralism, this is a view illustrated beautifully by an ancient story of ten blind men trying to describe an elephant after touching different parts of its body for the first time. As they announced their conflicting discoveries, a heated argument ensued. Awakened by the quarrel, the king corrected all of them by saying, “The elephant is a huge animal and each of you touched a part. In order to know the whole truth about what the elephant looks like, you must put together all the parts!” The moral of the story is that no religion has privileged access to the whole truth. Each religious view is a partial experience of the same reality from its own culturally-conditioned perspective. This view is popular because tolerance towards all religions is needed to ward off violent fundamentalism in the wake of post-911 ‘war on terror’. 

The history of religious pluralism existed in medieval Islamic law and Islamic ethics, as the religious laws and courts of other religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, were usually accommodated within the Islamic legal framework, as exemplified in the Caliphate, Al-Andalus, Ottoman Empire and Indian subcontinent. 

In medieval Islamic societies, the qadi (Islamic judges) usually could not interfere in the matters of non-Muslims unless the parties voluntarily choose to be judged according to Islamic law, thus the dhimmi(non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law) communities living in Islamic states usually had their own laws independent from the Sharia law, such as the Jews who would have their own Halakha courts. Islamic empires allowed non-believers to have their own laws and courts in exchange for a Jizya poll tax.

Dhimmis were allowed to operate their own courts following their own legal systems in cases that did not involve other religious groups, or capital offences or threats to public order. Non-Muslims were allowed to engage in religious practices that was usually forbidden by Islamic law, such as the consumption of alcohol and pork, as well as religious practices which Muslims found repugnant, such as theZoroastrian practice of incestuous "self-marriage" where a man could marry his mother, sister or daughter. According to the famous Islamic legal scholar IbnQayyim (1292-1350), non-Muslims had the right to engage in such religious practices even if it offended Muslims, under the conditions that such cases are not presented to Islamic Sharia courts and that these religious minorities believed that the practice in question is permissible according to their religion. As the time move on, some of the people in that community have made to a conclusion that pluralism can be used in Muslim community.  And yet, until today there are still few Muslims believe the concept of pluralism can be used in Islam. However, the true Islam does not approve this concept.

There are many reasons why pluralism has been accepted by few people in this world. One of it is that pluralism has followed the flow of modernisation and globalisation. In this modern and global era, peace and harmony are the most important goal that all countries trying to achieve amongtheir public and also among the countries. Pluralism can be used to avoid conflict thus will vanish the differences and identity between religions.So, the country that used this concept will have benefits to interact with other country and also can avoid any conflict or wars.

 Other than that, politics is one of the reasons that pluralism has spread. Struggles for power and wealth inflect the course or religious pluralism in world politics. Pluralism is often considered by proponents of modern democracy. Some of the politicians are willing to use the concept of pluralism in order to win the election in their country. Usually the politicians are from the country with different religions among the citizens such as Malaysia and Indonesia. In Indonesia, pluralism has already been accepted by their government and the whole citizens. Which means this three major religions Islam, Christian and Hinduism in Indonesia are equally valid in terms of truth and purity.

 Many religious believers believe that religious pluralism should entail not competition but cooperation, and argue that societal and theological change is necessary to overcome religious differences between different religions, and denominational conflicts within the same religion. For most religious traditions, this attitude is essentially based on a non-literal view of one's religious traditions, hence allowing for respect to be engendered between different traditions on fundamental principles rather than more marginal issues. It is perhaps summarized as an attitude which rejects focus on immaterial differences, and instead gives respect to those beliefs held in common.

The concept of religious pluralism somehow is also said to be relevant to human service professions, such as psychology and social work, as well as medicine and nursing, in which trained professionals may interact with clients from diverse faith traditions. For example, psychologist Kenneth Pargament has described four possible stances toward client religious and spiritual beliefs, which he called rejectionist, exclusivist, constructivist, and pluralist. Unlike the constructivist stance, the pluralist stance to recognizes the existence of a religious or spiritual absolute reality but allows for multiple interpretations and paths toward it. In contrast to the exclusivist who maintains that there is a single path "up the mountain of God," the pluralist recognizes many paths as valid. Although both the exclusivist and the pluralist may agree on the existence of religious or spiritual reality, the pluralist recognizes that this reality is expressed in different cultures and by different people in different ways. Because humans are mortal and limited, a single human religious system cannot encompass all of the religious or spiritual absolute reality. 

There are few religions took the concept of pluralism and one of it is Hinduism. The Hindu religion is naturally pluralistic. A well-known Rig Vedic hymn says that "Truth is One, though the sages know it variously." (Ékam sat viprabahudāvadanti).  Similarly, in the Bhagavad Gītā (4:11), God, manifesting as an incarnation, states that "As people approach me, so I receive them. All paths lead to me" (ye yathāmāṃprapadyantetāṃstathāivabhajāmyaham mama vartmānuvartantemanuṣyāḥpārthasarvaśaḥ).  The Hindu religion has no theological difficulties in accepting degrees of truth in other religions. Hinduism emphasizes that everyone actually worships the same God, whether one knows it or not. Just as Hindus worshiping Ganesh is seen as valid by those worshiping Vishnu, so someone worshiping Jesus or Allah is accepted. Many foreigndeities become assimilated into Hinduism, and some Hindus may sometimes offer prayers to Jesus along with their traditional forms of God.

A famous Buddhist named Dalai Lama give his point of view on religious pluralism. When asked, “Don’t all religions teach the same thing? Is it possible to unify them?” the Dalai Lama said: “People from different traditions should keep their own, rather than change. However, some Tibetan may prefer Islam, so he can follow it. Some Spanish prefer Buddhism; so follow it. But think about it carefully. Don’t do it for fashion. Some people start Christian; follow Islam, then Buddhism, then nothing. In the United States I have seen people who embrace Buddhism and change their clothes! Like the New Age. They take something Hindu, something Buddhist, something, something… That is not healthy. For individual practitioners, having one truth, one religion, is very important. Several truths, several religions, is contradictory. I am Buddhist. Therefore, Buddhism is the only truth for me, the only religion. To my Christian friend, Christianity is the only truth, the only religion. To my Muslim friend, Islam is the only truth, the only religion. In the meantime, I respect and admire my Christian friend and my Muslim friend. If by unifying you mean mixing, that is impossible, useless.”  From his statement, he was saying that all religionshave their own ways toward salvation and all religions are not the same. 

Within the Jewish community there lies a common history, a shared language of prayer, a shared Bible and a shared set of rabbinic literature, thus allowing for Jews of significantly different world views to share some common values and goals.Traditionally, Jews believe that God chose the Jewish people to be in a unique covenant with God, described by the Torah itself, with particular obligations and responsibilities elucidated in the Oral Torah. Sometimes this choice is seen as charging the Jewish people with a specific mission — to be a light unto the nations, and to exemplify the covenant with God as described in the Torah. This view, however, did not preclude a belief that God has a relationship with other peoples — rather, Judaism held that God had entered into a covenant with all humankind, and that Jews and non-Jews alike have a relationship with God.

In Christianity, some Christians have argued that religious pluralism is an invalid or self-contradictory concept. Maximal forms of religious pluralism claim that all religions are equally true, or that one religion can be true for some and another for others. Some Christians hold this idea to be logically impossible from the Principle of contradiction. 

However, other Christians have held that there can be truth value and salvific value in other faith traditions. John Macquarrie, described in theHandbook of Anglican Theologians (1998) as "unquestionably Anglicanism's most distinguished systematic theologian in the second half of the twentieth century,"  wrote that "there should be an end to proselytizing but that equally there should be no syncretism of the kind typified by the Baha'i movement".  In discussing 9 founders of major faith traditions (Moses, Zoroaster, Lao-zu, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Krishna, Jesus, and Muhammad), which he called "mediators between the human and the divine," Macquarrie wrote that:I do not deny for a moment that the truth of God has reached others through other channels - indeed, I hope and pray that it has. So while I have a special attachment to one mediator, I have respect for them all. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also teaches a form of religious pluralism, that there is at least some truth in almost all religions and philosophies.

In contrast, Islam does not approve at all the concept of pluralism. In fact, if any Muslim follows the concept of pluralism, it will ruin their aqidah. Reference to Islamic views on religious pluralism is found in the Quran. The following verses are generally interpreted as an evidence of religious pluralism:

Surah Al-Ma'idah: If Allah so willed, he would have made you a single People, but his plan is to test each of you separately, in what He has given to each of you: so strive in all virtues as in you are in a race. The goal of all of you is to Allah. It is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which you dispute. Surah Al-Ankabut:And dispute not with the People of the Book, except with means better than mere disputation, unless I be with those of them who inflict wrong and injury, but say to them: "We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; Our God and your God is one; and it is to Him that we bow." 

Surah Al-Baqarah: "Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands outs clear from Error"  . Surah Yunus: "If they charge you with falsehood, say: 'For me are my deeds and for you are your deeds! You are free from responsibility for what I do, and I for what you do' ".  Surah Al-Khaf: "Say, 'The Truth is from your Lord' Let him who will, believe, and let him who will, reject (it)' " Surah Al- Kafirun: "To you (non-believers) be your Way (Religion), and to me mine"  .

 All these verses in Quran proved that there is no other God except for Allah. He is our Lord and for He only we must worship. The verses also state that Islam is the only religion that is true, complete and comprehensive. That is why pluralism in Islam is very dangerous. Allah forbidden pluralism because when you believe in pluralism you will also committed Syirik. Which will ruin the Aqidah of a Muslim and in the end it will result to apostasy. Pluralism can also cause destructions among the Muslims.

              In Malaysia, the action of pluralism is not as extreme as in Indonesia. There are only few cases in Malaysia involving pluralism and one of it involving a Muslim, the Opposition Leader of PKRDatuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. He proposed that Malaysia should adopt the concept of religious pluralism because the Malaysian citizens consist of different religion, races and cultures. He said, “thank God. I did not say thank Allah” . Unfortunately, the Malaysian authorities instead of welcoming his proposal they are threatening to punish him saying his ideas may result in the diminution of the status of Islam. This statement of his has sparked the anger within the Muslim in Malaysia. 

To resolve this problem, the government have instructed Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) to investigate his statement. JAKIM is actually an organization under the government of Malaysia. The functions of JAKIM are to improve and standardise the legal and administrative aspects relating to Islamic affairs, laws and education within the country.To ensure that the policies and national development plans are smoothly implemented in any Islamic activities.To holdDa’wahIslamiahprogrammes and activities for Muslim citizens   . JAKIM  also to hold programmes and activities for the implementation of the Islamic Absorption Values into Administration Policy and activities in Federal Government Department and Statutory Bodies.

Moreover, JAKIM also have to make efforts to contribute towards the enhancement and strengthening of the position of Islam and its followers in Malaysia and to control and maintain the purity of faith and the teachings of Islam in the country and to solve the problems of theummah that are related to current issues. They also have toevaluate and provide recommendations on Islamic activities that are implemented by the Government and private agencies and to ensure there are no conflicts between national and Islamic interests. And last but not least, they have toplan activities to assist the state Islamic authorities in theDa’wahIslamiahfield. Thus, this issue regarding Islamic religious matter is put under JAKIM so that they could investigate clearly on Anwar Ibrahim. They have to make sure whether the Aqidah that Anwar holds are true or not in Islam. 

Besides that, there are also others Non-Government Organizations (NGO) that have the same objective as JAKIM. The NGO are Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) and Muslim Welfare Organization of Malaysia (PERKIM). These NGO also contribute to Muslim citizens by giving speech or trying to prevent any misunderstood of Islamic concept. Thus, the issue regarding pluralism is at concern for both organizations.

In conclusion,religious pluralism is an ideology that says all religions are the same and pure even the Gods are the same. In other religions, there are few that accept the concept of pluralism and there are few religions that might have different views on pluralism among themselves. However, in Islam, religious pluralism is forbidden because it justifies other religions but plurality in the sense that people believe in different religions is allowed, as such, we have to respect each other and coexist peacefully.