E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi and the Encounter …. 17statement titled “How can we co-exist?”.Tagging the Americanappeal as ‘Yankee Fatwa’, the Saudi statement rejected theattempt to universalise Western values, particularly secularismin the sense of the separation of religion and the state. Under asub title ‘Islam and Secularism’ it argues:The signatories to the American paper focused on thenecessity of the separation of church and state, and theyconsidered this to be a universal value that all the nationsof the Earth should adopt. We Muslims approach theproblem of the relationship between religion and the statedifferently. Our understanding is to protect the will of themajority and their rights while also protecting the rightsof the minority. Islam is a comprehensive religion thathas specific laws addressing all aspects of life. It isdifficult for a nation to be respected and taken seriouslyby its people in an Islamic environment without adoptingthe laws of that religion in general. State adoption of thereligion does not mean an infringement on the particularneeds of the minorities who live within it or their beingforced to abandon their religion and embrace Islam. Theidea that there is no compulsion in religion is firmlyplanted in the Muslim mindset and is clearly stated in theQur'ân. (emphasis added) The separation of church andstate that the American thinkers are calling to in theirletter shows a lack of understanding of how religion actsas a formative basis for culture in Islamic societies. Wesee secularism as inapplicable to Muslim society, becauseit denies the members of that society the right to applythe general laws that shape their lives and it violates theirwill on the pretext of protecting minorities. It does notstand to reason that protecting the rights of the minorityshould be accomplished by violating the rights of themajority. We see that the real concern of a religiousminority is the protection of its rights and not the