From: ahmed-shakil@cs.yale.edu (Shakil Ahmed)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bangladesh
Subject: Re: Secular, Muslim Brotherhood and Changes
Date: 24 Jan 1993 16:58:25 -0500
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: curie.systemsy.cs.yale.edu


In article <C1DKrM.C35@news.udel.edu>, khaleq@brahms.udel.edu (M
Khalequzzaman) writes:

> We don't need to change any secular government,  because secularism is
> recognized in Koran (see Unbelievers - a verse of Koran).  What we
> really need to do is to overthrow muslim monarchs and kingdom in an attempt
> to establish a secular and democratic world.

Here is Surah 109 (The Unbelievers):

    In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

    1. Say: O unbelievers!

    2. I do not serve that which you serve,

    3. Nor do you serve Him Whom I serve:

    4. Nor am I going to serve that which you serve,

    5. Nor are you going to serve Him Whom I serve:

    6. You shall have your religion and I shall have my
    religion.

Please explain what this has to do with secularism.  Saying that
secularism is recognized by the Qur'an is a paradox.  What Surah 109
tells us is that there is no compulsion in religion and everyone is
free to follow whatever religion they please.  This is *not* the same
as secularism.  And while Islam advocates democracy, it does not
support secularism in the sense the word is used today.  For a
Muslim, Islam is a way of life, and hence influences any ideology.

It has become very fashionable in the academic world to jump onto the
bandwagon of "secularism" and sit content that it is great and that it
works.  Does it?  Has it been working in the neighbor the west of
Bangladesh?  Does it work in Europe?  I grew up in predominantly Roman
Catholic Austria which is run, in theory, by a very secular
government.  And yet, you cannot spend a second in Austria without
experiencing the religious forces around you.  The holidays, the times
that stores open and close, so many laws and practices make the
concept of "secularism" laughable.  Look at England.  Every school
requires all students, regardless of religious background to say
prayers every morning, and in all boarding schools, all students must
attend church services.  And it is in England that a court ruled a few
years ago that the blasphemy laws only apply to the Christian religion.
Still we consider the British government a secular government.  

The fact of the matter is that "secularism" as a concept does not seem
to be implementable when there is a distinct majority who have a set
of morals and values on which they base their laws.  In many cases
this set of values results from an underlying religious base,
regardless what the religion may be.  To pretend that the state is
independent of religion or collective values and beliefs is
self-delusional.

What needs to be guaranteed is not "secularism," but religious
freedom.  The two are not interchangeable.  Islam guarantees the
latter.

-- Shakil Ahmed
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