National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies – Australia’s Contribution to the Mystification and Secularisation of Islam

When Hitler came to power in Germany, he ordered the public burning of all books that challenged his adopted communist ideology. Centuries before, when Hulaga Khan ransacked Baghdad he ordered the public burning of all Islamic literature. Indeed there are many events in history which show that any literature that was deemed to be of a competing ideology, was seen as irrevocably detrimental to the sovereignty of the ruling elite that ever came to power. Today the public burning of literature may be seen as evil; an ill-minded, weak and desperate attempt to counter ideas with any intellectual aptitude. Yet such desperation to destroy an ideology looms in the dark shadows of modern secular societies; it is the burning of a book of a different kind, one that aims for naught but the subversion of Islam. Overt operations can only be effective when coupled with a concerted covert operation. This covert operation can take many forms and in Australia this has presented itself in the guise of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies (“NCEIS”).

On 16 July 2006, Julie Bishop MP, as Minister for Education, Science and Training, and Andrew Robb MP, then Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, jointly announced the Australian Government’s decision to provide $8 million over four years towards the establishment of the Centre at an Australian university or consortium of universities.

The Centre was touted as an Australian Government supported initiative under the National Action Plan to Build on Social Cohesion, Harmony and Security. The plan, commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments, was informed by the work of the Government's hand picked Muslim Community Reference Group which met from September 2005 to September 2006.
The Australian Government’s decision to establish a Centre was made after consultation with Islamic religious leaders, Muslim community leaders, members of the higher education sector and members of the wider Australian community.

Religious leaders from the Australian Muslim community met at the Conference of Australian Imams in September 2006. Acknowledging that it was up to Muslims themselves to select their Imams and other religious leaders, the religious leaders at the conference voiced their support for the Centre. They noted that the Centre will be a place of learning and academic endeavour, enabling both Muslim and non-Muslims to deepen their understanding of Muslim cultures and societies.

Muslim Community Reference Group members recommended in October 2005 that a stock-take of Islamic study at Australian universities be undertaken. This stock-take found that many universities were willing to further develop their expertise in providing Islamic education and training options on their campuses. The stock-take also found a lack of courses that could help meet the learning needs of Imams and other Islamic religious leaders and teachers.
The 2004 report Religion, Cultural Diversity and Safeguarding Australia by the Australian Multicultural Foundation and the then Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs recognised the capacity of religious community leaders to promote social capital and peace-building in their community and that professional development programmes for Imams and other Islamic leaders would assist them in their leadership roles in a multi-faith Australian society.

The Centre is hosted by a consortium led by the University of Melbourne and including the University of Western Sydney and Griffith University. It provides university accredited courses and other learning opportunities for all Australians interested in Islamic studies and will also play a leadership role in public debates on contemporary Islam.
On 23 October 2007 the Centre was formally opened, establishing a new undergraduate Islamic studies course and also offering postgraduate study and research opportunities.
The funding provided by the Australian Government is to support the establishment of the Centre, including:

• 40 new commencing student places for Islamic studies at the Centre in 2008 with student numbers estimated to grow to 109 places by 2011.
• Infrastructure funding of $4 million. This initiative of the Australian Government was welcomed by non-Muslim factions of the Australian society.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president Grahame Leonard said the initiative, “has objectives we very much applaud” and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff said: “There have to be controls in place, both in terms of who is appointed to teach and what it is that is being taught. The composition and involvement of the centre’s advisory board will therefore be critical.”

Support has also been forthcoming from international financial power houses in the Muslim world. Earlier this year, Khaleej Times reported that the UAE based The Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) and the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies (NCEIS) at the University of Melbourne, Australia, entered into an agreement to share information and cooperate in programs. The agreement is under the cover of a series of mutual research cooperation accords that have been signed between the centre and similar academic institutions in several countries, the Chairman of the ECSSR said.

So what is wrong with the idea of the NCEIS?

To the simple, unaware Muslim the NCEIS may seem like a plausible option for a productive platform for the learning and propagation of Islam. In fact the complete opposite can be said of the outcome of the Government funded institution. A closer look at the line-up of the faculty presents a startling revelation of the mindset of these individuals and therefore shows that with this line-up the purpose of the NCEIS is nothing but to distort our Islam.
The so-called experts teaching at the NCEIS are either non-Muslims or modernists and secular Muslims. The prominent amongst the latter are:

Abdulla Saeed (University of Melbourne) who is one of the Co-Directors. His modernist position on Islam calls for a ‘contextual’ interpretation of Islam instead of on the basis of classical jurisprudence, which effectively lends support to compromising some important Islamic values. This is evident in his praise for Muslim majority countries for abandoning the shariah in favour of modern concerns about gender equality and human rights’ (2008). His claim that Australia a ‘non-Muslim country is already Islamic’ simply because it has the principles of justice and fairness shows his total disregard for Islam as the basis of judgement in deciding these principles. Further, in limiting Islam as primarily a relationship between an individual and God, which is based on a set of ethical moral values and norms, and that this can be practised anywhere where there is religious freedom and justice, he totally disregards the collective rights and responsibilities of the Muslim Ummah.

Mohammed Abdalla (Griffith University) – the other of the Co-Directors, asserts that embracing nationalism and patriotism in events such as Anzac Day does not contradict Islamic teaching. In fact he promotes these as basis for Muslims interaction with non-Muslims. Further he glorifies Muslims who have joined Australian armed forces and received medals, even though they may have been complicit in the crimes against the Muslim Ummah in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Courier-Mail, 12 April 2007).

Sharahm Akbarzadeh, Associate Professor, shows a strong implication that Islam is incomplete when he asserts that “[i]f Islam is a living religion, as Muslims believe it to be, then its laws and dictums need to evolve and keep up with the contemporary issues that face Muslims ... It needs to be evolutionary and adaptive” (2008). Akbarzadeh was the Australian representative of an Iranian radical Marxist group, the Sazman-e Kargaran-e Engelabi-ye Iran/Rah-e Kargar (Organisation of Revolutionary Workers of Iran/Worker’s Voice) and therefore cannot be accepted as any legal authority on Islam.

Dr. Muhammad Kamal, another lecturer, teaching Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. His grounding in Philosophy sees him praise the Mu’tazilah school of thought (Australian Rationalist Magazine 2003), which is widely rejected by mainstream Muslims.

Then there is Dr. Samar Habib, a self confessed lesbian who actively propagates that homosexuality is halal in Islam. Her students have also attributed to her saying that the Hijab is not obligatory in Islam; that Ahadith are ‘Chinese Whispers’; and that Muslim scholars can be ignored, since they are males.

The list of Muslim cohorts forming part of the NCEIS faculty, leading and propagating its ‘reformation of Islam’ agenda, are only a part of a long list individuals who under the guise of intellectualism and re-opening the doors of Ijtihad have justified many acts considered conclusively haraam in Islam. Such individuals have completely misused terminology in order to justify the unjustifiable. For example, Irshad Manji is another who openly supports homosexuality a well known prohibited act according to the Qur’an and Sunnah. She even proudly posted a photo of herself with gay and lesbian Palestinians in Jerusalem on her website.

Can the Muslim community seriously accept these individuals who rubbish our Islam to be representing it as our leaders?

Is this the type of Centre that the Muslim Community, Imams and other religious leaders met with the government to have? Is this the “place of learning and academic endeavour, enabling both Muslim and non-Muslims to deepen their understanding of Muslim cultures and societies” that was called for?

To accept the NCEIS and the individuals behind it would indeed be a near blasphemous insult to our pristine deen.

One can see from the modernist and secular faculty line-up that the agenda of the NCEIS is a reformist one that would result in nothing less than the mystification and secularisation of Islam, reducing it to merely a religion as opposed to an ideology (deen; comprehensive way of life) that deals with all of life’s affairs. And to accept this notion is to say that Allah(swt) as the supreme Creator has no say in any societal or political matters when exactly the opposite is true for Islam. The effects of such an acceptance will be a devastating fitnah for the Muslims and one only needs to look at the prevalence of such fitnah in any present day secular society that does not value any relationship with the Creator to see secularism’s devastating effects. We find in secular societies:

• Individualism is at the core of one’s existence in society and communal activity centres around organised distractions in the form of amusement
• The predominant values are founded upon a shallow concept of life and over time it becomes okay to be gay, accepting sodomy and perhaps even and bestiality have become commonly accepted norms for what seems to be a growing number
• A life of celibacy is preferred over matrimonial harmony leading to the break down of family values
• Alcohol and drugs are common for the fulfilment of pleasures and an outlet for problems/ depression
• Debauchery and lewdness has led to prostitution and even gang rapes
  Unwanted pregnancies are rife leading to abortion issues
• Child pornography and paedophilia are on the rise
  Hedonism has taken root leading to frustrated elements resorting to theft and armed robbery
• Materialistic values divide the society into a class structure with people valued on the basis of the wealth and status
• The care for the elderly and poor is only at the mere leisure of one’s casual gesture and not the primary concern of society

In essence under a secular society the separation of the Creator from everyday life means that there is a void in the value system one falls back on. The concept of individualism takes firm hold and the ‘values void’ is quickly filled up by the notion of freedom. This leaves no room for the accountability of one’s own actions. Thus people walk around with the mindset that they are free to do what they want, wherever they want, with whomever they want and whenever they want. Such a notion of life is contradictory to the values harboured by Islam. Thus were the Muslims to swallow the poisonous version of Islam from the NCEIS, we would see the ultimate numbing of our conscience to the effect that Muslims will limit their shariah to aspects of private life and view Islam merely as a form of spiritual guidance, good enough for ritual acts of worship, morals and conduct; values which can be found as common elements not only in other religions but in atheists as well and thus the relevance of Islam will be diminished in the hearts and minds of the Muslims. Such a state of conscience would result in compromises and result in:

• The Quran being diminished to a book akin to the tales of soothsayers instead of being a complete source of canons and constitution
• The shariyah which embodies governance, societal dealings and international affairs being abandoned
• The bond of brotherhood being replaced by secularism’s championed bonds of patriotism and nationalism breeding disunity amongst Muslims
• The suffering of Muslims around the globe being seen as a small affliction and the deaths of many whether under despotic rulers or invading, looting marauders being written off as statistics
• The essential fabric of ‘enjoining good and forbidding evil’ that breathes life into an Islamic society and keeps it revived being seen as a concept that is alien
• The absence of any seriousness towards life and the meaning of life leading to the acceptance of the humour behind the attacks on our honoured symbols, be it the cartoons of the Prophet (saw) the using of the Quran as target practice or the using of our brother in Iraq as a Christmas tree

This is indeed a matter of serious concern for any sincere Muslim. Meanwhile the push to breed secular Imams and leaders continues at universities.

Why target Universities?

Rhetorically it needs to be asked, “What better way is there for affecting the hearts and minds than to infiltrate the educational system?”

In 2003 a diatribe from the US based Rand Institute in a report entitled, “Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources and Strategies” called for a focus on Education and Youth amongst other recommendations, noting that:

• “committed adult adherents of radical Islamic movements are unlikely to be easily influenced into changing their views.”
• The younger generation “can conceivably be influenced if the message of democratic Islam can be inserted into school curricula and public media in the pertinent countries.”
  

It is well known that universities bring together, from all parts of society, young individuals with an objective to achieve and succeed in life. Therefore these universities serve as the hub where ideas, concepts and values can be exchanged. It is where the next generation of leaders are bred. It therefore presents a fertile working ground for all types of activism. Thus political movements (including young labor, liberal or greenpeace) use this opportunity to attract and groom their members. Islamic movements find no exception either and in fact have been quite successful in redirecting the lives of not only once lost Muslims but many non-Muslims who have converted to Islam. Policy makers fear that such Islamic activism would result in the radicalisation of Muslim students; hence the need for such initiatives as the NCEIS. UWS, one of the universities forming part of the NCEIS consortium, having the biggest Muslim student presence in Sydney, has been carefully selected as the breeding ground for future secular Imams and leaders of the Muslim community here.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) website does say that the courses under the NCEIS will “help prepare people for work with and in Australian Muslim communities as school teachers, social workers, health professionals, business managers, community leaders and other professionals” This shows a key drive to have Muslims from within our community working to limit our Islamic sentiments and at their hands have imposed secular values upon our hearts and minds and force us to integrate.

Context – the battle for hearts and minds

It has not been sufficient for the West to run scare campaigns to demonise our Islam by referring to it as an evil ideology (Tony Blair 2006). Such scare campaigns are aimed at polarising the Muslim community who are minorities in the West. The scare campaigns are essentially productive tools for exploiting the patriotic sentiments of a people. However given its volatile nature, patriotic sentiments only remain prevalent under a threat scenario. Before long the threat is eliminated and the sentiments vanish. Furthermore society is made up of more than just patriotic sentiments, and such scare tactics therefore builds hostility, further polarisation, no cohesion and eventually there is the risk that concerned citizens will start questioning the validity of their own government’s polices towards Muslims.

To achieve a more complete effect, the dilution of concepts that Muslims hold is essential. The push for pluralism with the beckoning call for tolerance means acceptance of other values even if they are not Islamic. Therefore, under the pretext of “social cohesion, harmony and security” a version of Islam that gives it recognition but relegates it to a lower level is essential to win the hearts and minds of Muslim to successfully implant in them secular, pluralist values.

The NCEIS initiative is not an isolated one. In fact it follows the values debate fired up by Peter Costello and John Howard, the push for recognition of secularism and democracy by new migrants under the new citizenship tests and ASIO’s focus on the Muslim community in their recruitment drive.

What cannot be dismissed also is that the Howard Government did not stop at funding the reformation of Islam only in Australia. In 2007 about $355 Million was aided to Indonesia under the Basic Education Program (BEP), which was to fund the construction or extension of about 2000 schools in 19 Indonesian provinces over a three year period. In March 2007 the then Minster for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, travelled to Indonesia under the auspices of a Sub-Regional Ministerial Meeting on Counter-Terrorism in Jakarta. His visit was also to monitor the progress of the Australian Government’s aid so he visited the BEP-funded Madrasah Tsaniwiyah, an Islamic junior secondary school in Bekasi, near Jakarta. This shows a concerted effort by Australia to address Islamic education beyond its borders.
Furthermore Australia does not act alone in the push to mystify and secularise Islam. In June 2007 Tony Blair pledged to spend £1m improving the teaching of Islamic studies at universities, as Downing Street said more imams should be trained in Britain and in a report, published at the same time by the Markfield Institute, recommended that universities should recruit traditionally trained scholars, consider the appointment of Muslim chaplains or advisers, change syllabuses to focus on aspects of Islam relevant to the contemporary practice of the faith and provide "add-on" elements to help give students an edge in the jobs market. The report also said: "The study of Islam and its civilisation remains anchored in the colonial legacy and mainly serves the diplomatic and foreign services. Teaching and research programmes need to be reorientated."
It should therefore come as no surprise that the agenda to re-educate Muslims about their religion and have Western-friendly Imams is a global agenda!

Yet this analysis will not be complete without looking at Australia’s NCEIS initiative in light of the position that Islam holds and the campaigns to subvert it, both historically and in present times.

In 1924 at the time of the Khilafah’s demise Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Minister announced to the House of Commons:

“We must put an end to anything which brings about any Islamic unity between the sons of the Muslims. As we have already succeeded in finishing off the Caliphate, so we must ensure that there will never arise again unity for the Muslims, whether it be intellectual or cultural unity.”

This encapsulated how the superpower of the day viewed Islam as a threat to its very existence.

In more recent times the fall of Communism in 1990 brought Islam into a direct clash with Capitalism. The former secretary general of NATO Willie Claes stated:

“The Alliance has placed Islam as a target for its hostility in place of the Soviet Union.”

Paul Wolfowitz said at a press conference in Singapore (May 2002):

“It’s true that our war against terrorism is a war against evil people, but it is also ultimately a battle for ideals as well as a battle of minds.”

And in a 2007 report, Building moderate Muslim Networks, the RAND institute declared:

“The struggle underway throughout much of the Muslim world is essentially a war of ideas. Its outcome will determine the future direction of the Muslim world.”

Thus viewing Islam as a threat called for more than military invasion of Muslims’ lands, demonisation of Islam and polarisation of Muslims. There has to be a struggle to win the battle of the hearts and minds of Muslims, which necessitated initiative for the reformation of Islam which means nothing but mystifying and thereby secularising it.

The NCEIS is therefore an extension of the global struggle to win the battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims. The eventual objective of the Western governments is to dilute and destroy Islam. The desperation of their campaigns is evident in the cunning mystification methods adopted by the Western Governments. Such an initiative stands at the pivot of having far reaching effects on the Muslim psyche and our aqeedah. Therefore it cannot be but seen as yet another institution amongst a host of others to subvert Islam by mystifying it and diluting its real value and injecting in our thoughts the poison that secularism is in order that we integrate.

Can the Muslim community in Australia really say that these secular values are the values we want? Can we really say that our Islam is need of such reformation after Allah(swt) has mentioned that our Islam has been perfected?:

الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الإِسْلاَمَ دِينًا فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ فِي مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِّإِثْمٍ فَإِنَّ اللّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. But if any is forced by hunger, with no inclination to transgression, Allah is indeed Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. [TMQ 5:3]

In the wake of the NCEIS' exposure, it is indeed refreshing to see that a group of scholars have signed a petition to express their dismay at the curricula of the NCEIS. And rightfully so for Allah(swt) informs us

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ فَلَا تَغُرَّنَّكُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا وَلَا يَغُرَّنَّكُم بِاللَّهِ الْغَرُورُ
إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوًّا إِنَّمَا يَدْعُو حِزْبَهُ لِيَكُونُوا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ السَّعِيرِ

O mankind! Certainly the promise of Allah is true. Let not then this present life deceive you, nor let the Chief Deceiver deceive you about Allah. Verily Satan is an enemy to you: so treat him as an enemy. He only invites his adherents, that they may become Companions of the Blazing Fire. [TMQ 35: 5,6]

The Muslim community must reject outright any notion to reform Islam, a comprehensive ideology that has been perfected by the Creator Himself!