Reza Aslan, A Pluralist Who Calls Himself A Muslim

An Iranian-American professor, Reza Aslan in an phone interview with The Malaysian Insider (TMI) criticised Putrajaya for “… setting itself up as a “parent” rather than an elected government, in banning the use of the word Allah among non-Muslims and dictating how Malaysian Muslims should practise their faith.”

My question is, what right has Reza Aslan to criticise a policy of another country and of a religion that he does not believe in?

Reza Aslan is a liberal and pluralist but claiming himself as a Muslim and is telling the Muslims that his ideology is the true Islamic teaching.

In 2014, Aslan described Islam as: “a man-made institution. It’s a set of symbols and metaphors that provides a language for which to express what is inexpressible, and that is faith. It’s symbols and metaphors that I prefer, but it’s not more right or more wrong than any other symbols and metaphors. It’s a language, that’s all it is.”^{[30] – Wikipedia}

Does he knows that being a liberal and pluralist is against the teaching of Islam?

If he does not understand Islam, how could he teaches an Islamic sovereign country about Islam?

It is weird when a person who does not even believe or follow the teaching of a religion thinks that he understands the religion better than the religious authorities of the religion itself.

Reza Aslan must learn to respect other religions and not to criticise others who do not share his belief in liberalism, pluralism and the Syiah teaching.

TMI also reported:

He (Reza Aslan) questioned as to why Malaysia should have a single official version of Islam for its citizens to follow, given that Islam is one of the most diverse religions in the world. – TMI

Reza Aslan is a liberal and pluralist, so he does not understand or believe in the true teaching of Islam.

In Malaysia, we are the Muslims of Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah from the Shafie school of thought or madhhab, so this is the guideline followed by our Islamic authorities.

And since there is only four school of thoughts in Islam, I think Reza Aslan’s statement that, “Islam is one of the most diverse religions in the world,” is wrong.

There are lots of deviant teachings which claimed to be a part of Islam, for example, Syiah; but the rules of Syiah is against the rules of Islam.

Here’s another quote from TMI, that proves how narrow-minded Reza Aslan is:

“So I think the Malaysian people need to make a decision, do they want to be like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or Iran?” – TMI.

1. It is hard to imagine that we want to be like Iran because Iran is a Syiah country and Syiah is not a part of Islam when Article 3(1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia says that Islam is the religion of the Federation; so we’ll not follow Iran.

2. Malaysia is a sovereign country and we have our own rules and constitution so we’ll be Malaysia, not Iran nor Sweden or Singapore.

3. We are not a secular country the way Reza Aslan wants us to be.

As a liberal and pluralist, Reza Aslan does not like the idea of an Islamic country having religious authorities that help to take care of Islam and the Muslims in the country:

“Theologian Reza Aslan says centralised religious authorities should not exist in countries that profess to adhere to Islam.”- TMI.

If Reza Aslan is a good Muslim, he’ll not make neither the above statement nor will he make the below statement because we need to follow our madhhab or school of thought and not simply mixing things from any madhhab that we find easier or more convenient for us.

“Islam allows me to follow any mufti that I please. We don’t have a pope, we don’t have a bishop who tells us what we can do.” – TMI.

Reza Aslan must not make ridiculous comments about the Allah issue if he does not understand the real issue because his comments only sounds exactly the same as the voices of the Malaysian opposition leaders and supporters including TMI who interviewed him for the above article.

TMI publishes lots of confusing articles to promote the liberals and pluralists but claiming that they are better Muslims than the Muslims themselves.

1. Don’t Want Liberalism, Tear Up The Constitution – Another Malicious Distortion Of The Truth From TMI

2. TMI’s “On Religious Authorities” – A Malicious Distortion Of The Truth

So, Reza Aslan must stop dictating the Malaysian Muslims on how they should practise their faith.

Reza Aslan has no rights to run this country or to dictate Putrajaya and the Malaysian Islamic authorities on what to do.