Islamic Radical Reform We are stuck in conservative mindset for too long.

Radical reforms need to be carried out to change mind set of Muslims to become more progressive in the ways of life. This task is not easy and time consuming but young generation of Muslims can be a catalyst to start this reform. All these years we have been fed with a lot of wrong interpretations, practices, and understandings. or instance, in the issue of word !Allah", many Muslims in this country think that word !Allah" cannot be used by #hristian. This interpretation is wrong and contradicts with the world famous Islamic #leric $r. %heikh &usuf al' (aradawi . )e stated that there is nothing wrong for #hristians to use word "Allah" in their *ible because Allah is +od for all human beings not only +od for Muslims. Malaysia is the only country in the world that prohibits non' Muslims from using word Allah. The whole world is laughing at us because of this issue that should not be an issue in the first place. Islamic institutions need reform and free from any political influence. ,ven riday %ermon is not free and controlled by the authority. -hatib, the person who read sermon have to follows script provided by Islamic authority like .A-IM. Many Muslims attended riday prayer felt asleep during the sermon because content of the sermon is outdated and not interesting. -hatib need to be given freedom to conduct riday %ermon spontaneously without any script. Islamic authorities argue that they have to control the sermon from being abused for other purposes. The truth is riday %ermons have been abused for government political propaganda for too long and Islamic authorities like .A-IM allows this to happen. Islamic institutions are too rigid, abusive, and embarrassment to Islam itself. They are not reflecting the true values of Islam. /lama and /sta0 are well respected in Muslim community because of their knowledge. The sad part is some of Muslims give their respect blindly in the sense that /sta0 and /lama have higher Islamic knowledge. They are forced to respect /lama unconditionally, forgetting that respect needs to be earned. Their integrity cannot be 1uestioned. It is look like they e1uate /lama and /sta0 as same level as Allah that cannot be 1uestioned. Any criticism on these people is considered as an insult to Islam or labeled as anti'/lama. They 2ust believe everything preached by their /sta0 without taking a minute to think about it. This kind of blind respect kills Muslims" critical thinking. The outcome is there is some /sta0 take advantage of this situation to manipulate Muslims" mind by instilling false Islamic teachings for their own personal benefits. %ome of them demand high !fee" if they want to be invited to conduct religious classes. Religion is used as a mask to accumulate wealth. %ome of them earn more than a medical specialist 2ust by conducting 3 hours per session religious classes. Is this kind of /lama that deserved to be respected4 Radical reform need to be done on Muslims" mindset.

-Hafiz Ahmad is a final year student of Economics at University of Malaya-