There appears to be a sentiment among young Muslims in Malaysia (and I would venture to guess, in many parts of the world) that, paradoxically, the Shari’ah; the rules and regulations of Islam; somehow do not reflect the spirit and values of Islam.
Ask any young Muslim and they will tell you that Islam is a peaceful, tolerant, benevolent and inclusive religion. This, as they see it, is the spirit of the religion. They perceive Islamic Law, however, as rigid, intolerant, harsh, and regressive. Many, therefore, begin to consider themselves, for lack of a better term, as spiritually Muslim, but generally dismissive of the Shari’ah; if not explicitly contemptuous.
We cannot afford to dismiss this view simply because of its apparent contradiction. The fact is, this view has been fed as much by Islamist radicalism as it has been by the spread of Western Humanism and secularism. We have alienated youth from the Shari’ah, in my opinion, by our own over-emphasis on it, and by the Islamist obsession with gaining state power. The truth is that though the Shari’ah is not oppressive, it has indeed been used by oppressors to claim Divine sanction for their tyranny. We have to admit this.
The overwhelming majority of what we generally refer to as Shari’ah is not Shari’ah; it is jurisprudence, it is Fiqh; it is opinion; and it is not binding, and it cannot be imposed. We have to admit this too.
It is a pretty serious problem if young Muslims feel that the only way to live by the core values of Islam is to abjure the Shari’ah. And this problem cannot be laid except at the feet of Islamic scholars.
At the end of the day, Islamic parties and NGOs have to decide what they want to accomplish; greater enforcement of Shari’ah or greater compliance with it; for these are two extremely different things which must be pursued differently, and their predictable outcomes are almost opposites.