If we put aside the little “errors” in his book, and look at the big picture, I must iterate that Syed’s viewpoints are credible and embodied some key learnings. He is not only brave, he has noble intentions – intentions to see Malaysia and the entire Muslim world progress.

All things and living creatures are created by Allah [or God or whatever, you choose to call Him]. He created people of different colors and has given Man a right of choice. If that’s a mistake, let Allah rectify it and not snatch the right from him……”give room to everyone” as spelled out in the Quaran. We should therefore allow different viewpoints and openly accept that everyone has that Allah-given right. It is also a measure of our maturity.

As elders, we teach our children to emulate the successful uncles and aunts; however, when we have more successful neighbors we are envious of them and think their progress resulted in our lack [scarcity mindset]. In the process, instead of critically analyzing the underlying reasons for our lack of progress, admitting to our faults, search for ways to overcome our weakness, study our neighbour’s success formulae and model their success, we sought to bring them down to our level. So, what if you succeed in bringing down our neighbors? – when one neighbour goes down, the whole neighbourhood crumbles. And the rest of the world just laugh – that goes another one! It’s a lose-lose situation.

And in this case, saying that Syed Akbar is wrong - just as I think he’s dead wrong about what he says about Christian sources in later chapters in his book - still requires that you demonstrate this. Or else it remains an untenable accusation rather than an informed conclusion.

I am no expert in Islam, the best thing other than getting facts right is to ensure not dishing out wrong ones for public consumption.

Doom not to religion, Doom not to Islam, Doom not to religious tolerance, Doom not to multi-cultural society, BUT DOOM TO SYED AKBAR!

In your standing only then you can enjoy such liberty, writings from anybody else would have created a racket.

May I know what’s the message of the deen please?

I hope your writing (any maybe some of your influence or actions) will help to ease this country onto a path of Malaysia for all Malaysians.

After reading the book and seeing what is happening in Iraq, it is clear that a religious revolution need to take place for Islam to keep pace with the technological revolution.

It has given me more faith in Islam as the prophecies are coming true.

However its tough to do dakwah work especially talking to potential non Malay “reverts to Islam”. How to compete with the “joy and happiness” of Christianity with the violence and hatred protrayed by the so called “Clergy of Islam”

One comment on the wearing of veils…was it not in Surah An Nur that specifically states the need to cover the face. A fact refuted in the book.

A good read…will it ever be published in Malay??? Thanks Syed for having the B..ls to publish it

Points noted about the editing. Thank you. Feel free to contact me at syedakbarali@yahoo.com

I am very interested in sdr walski’s comment that he too has been trying to spread the message of the deen. Can we join forces sdra walski ?

Much needs to be done.

I don’t want to speculate too much - and I apologize to En Syed in advance - but if I remember correctly, he didn’t seem to need to self-publish his first book in the vein of so-called vanity books. I don’t have the first book on hand - having lent it to someone else - so I can’t check to be sure.

Perhaps some publishers have found his work too controversial? I’ll never know (unless En Syed drops me an email… LOL).

@walski: hey! I’m still moving along in reading the book and trying to keep adequate notes. I’m familiar with your blog since I read it quite often LOL but yeah, I know that the kind of Islam that you describe has a degree of tolerance beyond what others like MENJ associate with the Deen. I’ve always wondered why.

It’s something I’ve been trying to sort out for some time, actually, but have not done much reading into the matter. I think you might be familiar with the differences between Catholics and Protestants, the main one being the adherence of the latter to the letter of the bible. This is especially the case with Bible Prysbetarians (I hope I don’t offend anyone with this).

In the same way, I think Muslims regard the Quran as literally true. But what about sources outside of the Quran, like the Hadiths and other sources? Are these reports on the actions of Prophet Muhammad meant to be adhered to literally or are they merely interpretations?

Because if something is literally true in the sense of “truth” with capital “T”, then it must be universally true. That’s fine, but interpretations are locked in in the milieu in which they were made, you know what I mean? If the latter is true, then there may be room for a re-interpretation of Islam in today’s contexts.

I know MENJ wouldn’t accept this, but what the heck.

In any case it’ll be a few weeks before I think I can get my act together to say something meaningful about En Syed’s book, so.. I think he says alot in this second book, whether he intended to or not LOL!

And I agree with you and AM - he could do with a better editor :P

Apart from that however, it is a great no-holds barred attempt to knock some sense into the Religionists and to expose the sometimes nonsense that’s being passed off as Islam. For readers like me, however, it is preaching to the choir.

As for your observation about how “liberal” Syed Akbar’s views are, I am not the least bit surprised, especially if they have been moulded from the Quran directly, and solely from the Quran.

You see, the way of life (Deen) set forth in the Quran is very different from what we conventionally know as “Islam”. And if you’ve read my own blog enough, you’d know that one of my missions has been to dismantle the millenium old waywardness that has become so commonplace today within the Muslim ummah.

Tell you what, if you finish your review first, I’ll definitely reference it in mine.