The Message
4 years ago, the Amman Message was declared and endorsed by hundreds of Muslim scholars all over the world on the agreement that despite the sectarian differences (Sunni, Shiah, Sufi, Salafi, Ibadhi, Ash’ari, etc) existing within Islam, no Muslim should call another an apostate and hence intra-Muslim violence should never be sanctioned let alone carried out.
After 4 years since the declaration of that message, one may wonder how far the Muslims have gone to really actualise it and live by it. Should an annual re-declaration of the message be necessary?
I think the shortcoming of this message is that it seemed or made to seem only to involve and apply to the ‘intellectual’ or so-called ’scholarly’ class of Muslims and not to the common ‘layperson’ Muslim. I don’t remember any significant publicity or news coverage being given to this event.
From Singapore, only Dr Yaacob Ibrahim endorsed it but not the Mufti of Singapore himself. Who is Dr Yaacob Ibrahim? A Muslim scholar? No. He is the Minister of the Environment and Water Resources, and Minister in charge of Muslim Affairs.
The Message was endorsed by the Head of State of Malaysia, and the Muftis of several other countries.
Another side effect of the fact that this important message was not sufficiently made known to the Muslims at large (and not only the so-called ‘intellectual’ class) is that a majority of Muslims are still unaware of the rich and diverse range of schools of thought prevalent amongst its communities. The worst permutation of this side effect is that when a Muslim from a majority / so-called mainstream school of thought encounters another subscribing to a minority school of thought, the former calls the latter a deviant, at worst, an apostate.
Note that I am not referring to Ahmadiya / Qadiani which is totally a religion outside of Islam. I am referring to cases whereby even over differences in opinion as to who succeeded the Prophet in leadership (not really a matter of primary Islamic doctrine) would merit one party calling the other apostate.
And then there are the innocent victims of malicious sectarianism-inspired propaganda. For a specific example, writing as a follower of the Twelver Shiah school of thought myself - and no, don’t you go stereotyping us Shiahs as people who like to victimise ourselves, this is reality - my Shiah friends and I have encountered instances whereby our non-Shiah Muslim brethren would ask / impose / insist on certain ‘facts’ about the Shiah (and the manners in which they did so varied greatly - from academically courteous to outright narrow-minded brute-headed rudeness) - for example -
- That the Shiah worship Ali as God.
- If not God, then the Shiah take Ali as the Prophet after Muhammad.
- If not, then the Shiah believe that actually the Arch Angel Gabriel made a mistake - Ali was supposed to be the last Prophet, not Muhammad.
- That the Shiah have a different Quran.
- That the Shiah are obliged to mutilate themselves every year because they failed to aid their Imam Husayn when he was killed in the historic Battle of Karbala.
- That the Shiah take the Prophet and his family, the Ahlul Bayt, as Avatars of Divinity who can grant boons if called for.
- That the Shiah belief actually came about from a Jew who infiltrated the Islamic faith and sought to disrupt it from within (and his name was Abdullah Ibn Saba).
- That the Shiah legalises prostitution.
- Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…
This is not the place for me to explain all the above (and more) away, but my friends know me for who and what I am.
Amman Message, Sunni, Shiah, Sufi, Salafi, Islam, Muslim, Yaacob Ibrahim