Politics, Prestige And Risk

PhD class starts at 5:00 pm. Fella was reading an article on Socrates at the central library, International Islamic University Malaysia. Kierkegaard criticized Socrates due to his decision not to break the law when Crito, one of his students, wanted to break jail and free Secretes but Socrates said I grew up in this country and I should not break the law even if they do injustice to me. The whole article was revolving around the theme of justice.

        

It is 5:20 pm and Fella is late already for class. He left the library and run toward class. It is just IRK building which is next to the central library. Fella did not pray since it is late already. When he reached class, he saw Professor discussing with two students. There are not many students in the class since this is PhD class. There are only 4 students registered for this subject. One student from the Maldives. Another student is from Turkey and Fella is from Myanmar and another old student is from Bangladesh.

‘I am sorry Prof…I am late’

‘No worries… Fella we did not start class yet’

‘ Do you know Amina’s situation?’

‘ Yes sir, she still did not receive her VAL(Visa approval letter)’

‘ I am worried about her, she is facing trouble with her Visa because she has had no visa since February. What about you Fella?’

‘ I received my VAL yesterday Prof… I have a visa till May 10, 2022’

‘ Your case is okay, but she has a problem …she did not come to class due to these matters

‘ Yes… Prof…She is under stress

‘ Here visa issue is really complicated Prof…’

‘ ….The behaviour of staff is also not friendly

‘ ….Student Union is raising this issue but I think it would not be that much effective because last time they met with Rector and nothing changed happened.’

‘May Allah make things easy for students. Azman, you may start your presentation now’

‘Sure…Prof’ Azman said and fixed his laptop with the projector and started to give his presentation.

The presentation ended and Prof started to ask questions based on the slides. In one instance, the topic of discussion went to the partition of India and slowly moving towards independence of Bangladesh and then the current context.

The old student from Bangladesh started to answer some questions related to Bangladesh.

‘ brother Shahid, I heard the current gov in Bangladesh is against Bangladesh Jamatee Islami and they hanged a few leaders already?’ Prof asked.

‘ Yes… Prof…They are against Bangladesh Jamatee Islami because they think that Jamatee Islami was against the Independence war in 1971.’ Shahid answered

‘ Why?’

‘ Prof… The problem is they hanged some innocent leaders of Bangladesh Jamatee Islami with false accusations. They are accused of the looting and raping of women which is completely false against these leaders. There is one scholar named Allama Delwar Hossain Saidi. He is very innocent because he even did not join any group in 1971. They accused him also and he is a public speaker in Bangladesh and everybody loves him and he is well respected across Bangladesh till today.’

‘ If it was the decision by jamatee Islami in 1971 not to involve with war. I think this is Hikmah(wisdom) and would be wise for jamatee Islami to say sorry to the nation’

‘ In fact, this is a huge problem with current members of its student organization saying why should we take this responsibility when we were not born during this time and another problem is this is political agenda and even if Bangladesh Jamatee Islami says sorry, it will backfire more. I think the young generation is already thinking that Bangladesh Jamaatee Islami got anti-war involvement during 1971 because these leaders have been charged with so many false accusations and people tend to be believed’

‘ Brother Shahid why not you write a PhD thesis on the topic investigating the role of Bangladesh Jamatee Islami in 1971? You can think of this topic from now. I guess you will find lots of evidence and you can go and take interview professors in Bangladesh who have expertise in this field

‘ Prof…May I ask one question to Azman based on his presentation?’ Fella asked.

‘ Sure... Go ahead.

‘ Azman….What’s the point of making the Islamic State like the Taliban where you have no freedom? I am giving you two examples. First, imagine people are going to Afghanistan to travel and can they allow wearing bras and bikinis like in Malaysia which we see in Langkawi? Second, Afghanistan is asking for financial aid from different countries but they need to pay some interest even if that is the least amount of money. Who wants to live in this kind of Islamic ideal society where you have no freedom and more importantly injustice will be happened by the name of justice and like the Church in Europe, you have no authority to ask questions since it is the literal interpretation of God and no words can be said before God words.’

Azman answered but not satisfied towards Fella. Then, Prof said,

‘ Look, Fella. I give you an example… I was dean once in this university back then and I used to hear from Rector,’ Islam is justice’. I see how the rector make sure every student got scholarship and funding during that time. I used to write for funding like unmarried rm800, married rm1000, married with 1 kid rm1100, married with 3kids rm 1400. It starts over here. If you uphold justice, that’s Islam and then people will embrace Islam but wherever you go you find corruption. Afghanistan is led by fundamentalists and that is not representing Islam’

‘ Sorry Prof…but which Islam are you talking about? Almost every Muslim country is corrupted. Is Saudi Islamic state ?’

‘ Saudi is the most racist country among the Muslim nations from my personal experience as I did my school with Saudis and did my bachelor's degree there’ said Azman.

‘True… I also studied in Saudi and I said I would study there but I do not want to get a scholarship from Saudi Gov they said you can not study without taking a scholarship and I took one during that time and what happened was I was talking with one Saudi in the plane and after long conversation in Arabic the man asked ‘ brother .. are you Muslim? What I am saying is that Saudi is led by the monarch and they do not allow any other ideology other than their ideology. They do not allow Muslim Brotherhood ideology since that is a threat to their power. They even think that outside people do not represent Islam. They do not allow free thinking and that’s why their education curriculum is different than here.’ Prof said.

‘Prof…Opposition parties in Bangladesh are saying fair elections are not happening for decades in Bangladesh, but where was justice when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founding father of Bangladesh, was killed?’

‘Yes…in 1971, I was supporting Bangladesh Independence and was listening to news related to Bangladesh. I was in Tamil Nādu and we were expecting Bangladesh to win and I love Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He is the sincere and the great leader of Bangladesh’ Prof said.

‘A country where the economy has been destructed by Pakistani soldiers and he went to take responsibility in such a critical moment. Who is to stand up during that time? It was very easy for him to leave the country and lead a luxurious life for the west rest of his life. In fact, whoever went during this time and would be killed. Even Ziaur Rahman was killed who was the army. This was indeed a critical stage’

‘ Here is the point Fella. Corruption would happen easily because religious ethics is not there. No doubt the intention of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was good but the ethics and values needed in their party people, that was lacking. Imagine if they had Islamic ethics, sacrificing mentality for the sake of Allah and homeland, it would make them excellent in service to the people of Bangladesh and I think they were not trained for that. Hence, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed by their party people mostly because these people were ethically and morally corrupted. Islam is justice if this concept is there, it is easy to get trust back towards religion but nowhere it is happening.’

‘Prof, what happened with Mursi in Egypt? If he managed to eliminate lead in soldiers like what happened in Bangladesh or how the prophet killed one Jews tribe in Madian due to the state’s safety concern, the Muslim Brotherhood would not be in this situation now. This politics is the fight for prestige. Either you become Boss or leave. No compromise should be here. I think what Sheikh Hasina did as a political strategy he was right in a sense, he got justice for his father after years of struggle. If Sheikh Hasina was to be polite like the muslim brotherhood, she would be dead by now. In fact, she was attacked by bombing at one time and she is suffering from that still today. If you speak or write the truth Prof, you can not continue your job here to some extent and this is just a normal institution compared to governmental organizations

‘ True, this is a hypocritical stance but we need to think about our family and this is really hard. If I write anything parsing the Indian Modi government, for example, I can easily earn millions of money because I have the brand as a professor of a reputed institution’

‘ Yes.. Prof…there is another side also if you stay in this profession and even if you can not speak the whole truth, at least you can contribute something and that is better than doing nothing being jobless’

‘Yes… That is another dimension of looking at any situation.

‘It makes sense to me now Prof…There are so many dimensions to look at one event in politics since so many ideologies are there. I was reading one article just before I came to this class and I saw how they are criticizing the decision of Socrates to die. The author was bringing a few dimensions from different authors to scrutinize the same event. As for politics based on religion, I do not think this is suitable at this age Prof, there is a famous quotation of Ibn Tayymiya saying that God loves the place where justice is upheld even if it is ed by non-muslim whereas Allah does not prefer that land led by Muslims if that land prevails injustice. If we look at Singapore and Western countries, They have a justice system which is much better than any Muslim countries.'

“Good point to be noted. Anyway, Thank you so much… I end my class today. Please prepare your slides tomorrow brother Shahid’, Prof left the class. They heard the sound of Azan from Masjid Miner. 3 of them left the class for UIA central mosque.