He has been posting quite abit over the past year in particular about his personal views on the state of the faith (and its organised Malay Muslim leaders) in Singapore so he is not an unknown actor in this whole incident. The merits of his views aside, he is not a "mere" convert who "suddenly felt uncomfortable" so there is much more fire where this smoke comes from - the issue of whether using FB as the medium to express his views/incite a response as a recurring bugbear is one that has dragged a number of people into his net, including the Mufti - there is definitely more to this story and his decision to record and report the misdemeanour....
https://www.facebook.com/Helikoan?fref=ts
Terence Helikaon Nunis
13 January ·
After almost 20 years as a Muslim, I have arrived at some conclusions that put me at odds with the community.
1. I do not believe the hijab is necessary. It is a cultural affection of the Arabs that evolved into a political statement. It is not mentioned in the Qur'an. And the same with the niqab.
2. I think halal certification is either a scam or an unfortunate cost. Unless there are obvious reasons to suspect otherwise, everything is automatically halal.
3. I do not believe damnation permanent. Neither do I believe Salvation is exclusive to Muslims. That limits God's Mercy.
4. I think many "authentic" narrations, even in Swahih al-Bukhari, are fabricated. We should exercise more skepticism of problematic ahadits.
5. I do not believe dog saliva is najis al-mughalazhah, or any restrictions on dogs as pets. That contradicts the Qur'an.
6. I do not believe that non-Muslims are restricted from inheriting from Muslims. There is no such stipulation in the ayat. There were historical reasons for the hadits.
7. I do not believe all forms of interest is necessarily usury, riba'. That is a fundamental ignorance of economics.
8. I certainly do not believe in gender segregation in public places. Strict gender segregation is unnatural.
9. The concept of an Islamic state is an oxymoron.
10. Drawings and artistic representations of the Prophet (s.a.w.) are not automatically blasphemous.
11. Stoning is not a valid means of capital punishment.
12. Most hudud punishments are outdated, and specific to certain conditions that do not exist for most of us.
I admit I never cared what Muslims think of me, orthodoxy or otherwise. I did not come to Islam to follow ingrained cultural practices and social beliefs masquerading as religion.
Terence Helikaon Nunis
19 January ·
This is a guideline for conversations with Muslims on religion:
1. Any line of argument that ends with, "It is the fault of the Jews", immediately loses credibility.
2. Contentions within Islam discussed publicly also have a non-Muslim audience. So, Muslims cannot claim some mythical intellectual superiority in Islam as long as every doctrinal challenge is met with an emotive response, takfir and appeals to authority.
3. Muslims cannot claim that, unlike Christianity, Islam has no clergy, when they treat their scholars like clergy.
4. There is no conversation when it begins with, "Who is your shaykh?", "Where did you learn?" and "Do you know the Qur'an?" It assumes that the one asking has the authority to demand anything, or comes from a higher level of knowledge. Even in the history of the Salaf, we never hear our scholars beginning a counter-point with this. Credentials are always established after an introduction.
5. Muslims cannot demand respect based on some authority they have in their local community, or because they think they are somebody when they do not give it.
6. "You are a kafir for believing this", "Fear Allah", "Are you a Muslim?" or anything along those lines is not a cogent argument. No one person has the right to claim guardianship over orthodoxy.
7. Any response that begins with, "You should not question ..." is invalid. If a doctrine cannot be questioned, then it cannot be challenged and if it cannot be challenged then there is no sound basis for belief. If everything in Islam cannot be questioned, then Islam ceases to be a religion and becomes a superstition.
8. Any response that begins with, "This will shake the faith of the people" is likewise invalid. If a Muslim's faith is so weak that a mere question will shake it, then that faith is a facade.
9. Any statement that begins with, "All the Muslims believe this," or "No one questions this," is obviously a lie. There are a multitude of sects and schools of thoughts. There are differences of opinions across schools and even within the same school. Most Muslims have only ever heard one position, and imagine that is the only one.
10.
And finally, most Muslims like their converts when these converts shut up and follow. They want some form of assimilation. Some take it to the extent that they have invented the word, "revert", to imply that life experience and knowledge prior to conversion, has no legitimacy. Any convert that has the temerity to question anything, is told, "You were never a Muslim," never one of "us". A vast section of the ummah celebrates conversions like trophies. People are not Pokemon, we are not here to be "collected".