Applying Wasaṭīyah within the Malaysian Religio-Political Context

Abstract

There is a resurgence of interest in the wasaṭīyah (moderation) approachamong contemporary Muslim academics and policymakers, particularly withregards to its application and utility in resolving social challenges. This renewedinterest apparently intensified especially due to Samuel Huntington’s1993 “clash of civilizations” thesis in the aftermath of 9/111 and the emergenceof extremism and liberal thinking in the Muslim world.2This short essay argues that the need for wasaṭīyah in the present-daycontext is not due to that factor alone; rather, it is a response to the pervasiveextremism manifesting itself in various forms, either in the practice of politics,economics, culture, religion, and others. Economic extremism produced exploitation,market manipulation, inequality, and poverty in many countries.In the realm of politics, extremism appears in the form of global domination,authoritarianism, and even democratization projects that ignore the country’ssocio-political contexts. Such an effort is meaningless to the locals and, atworst, might jeopardize the democratization project itself.In addition, the rise of modernity and postmodernity has produced unintendedconsequences. Modern society tends to engage in the endless pursuitof materialism and conspicuous consumerism, both of which devalue spiritualityand the religious life. Modern people, therefore, are intellectually sophisticatedbut suffer from a spiritual-ethical vacuum due to their excessive pursuitof material gain. The “reign of quantity,” as Rene Guénon argued, not onlyrules supreme in the economic and business domains, but also permeates institutionsof higher learning. Eventually liberal education does produce ...