Blasphemous Ramadan
By Zan Azlee

JULY 13 — I could kick myself for missing Tariq Ramadan’s talk in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday but I had just started a new job and I’ve been too engrossed in that. But no worries. He is going to be in town for a week and is scheduled to make a slew of appearances around the country. Rest assured I will be attending at least one of it.

One thing that I have to say I admire about Tariq Ramadan is that he is not afraid to support religion and be called an extremist when he is, in fact, quite liberal. Let me explain this in simpler terms. Many modern and so-called moderate Muslims these days are quick to condemn and disassociate themselves from hudud laws because they consider them barbaric and archaic.

A person is a thief? Chop off his hands!

That woman committed adultery? Stone her to death!

It definitely does sound barbaric, doesn’t it? I myself am not too fond of laws and punishment such as these which I think gives Islam a bad image in this day and age. Tariq Ramadan, however, defends hudud laws since, according to him, it is in fact based on religious scripts and as a faithful Muslim, he cannot deny it. [Click to read the full article at The Malaysian Insider]