He said that Muslims in Malaysia tend to be more legalistic and first ask “what is the fatwa?” instead of resorting to other ways when faced with human problems.

“I am not saying fatwa is not important, but surely there are more than just fatwas (to resolve issues).

“We have to ask the hard questions and move away from the legalistic approach to a more scientific and humanistic approach to solving human problems,” he said at a webinar today, adding that there is nothing wrong with fatwas.

The webinar dissected political scientist Ahmet Kuru’s book “The Ulema-State Alliance: A Cause of Authoritarianism and Underdevelopment in the Muslim World”, which has been translated to Malay.

Saifuddin said while there is plenty of discourse on Islamic law, Muslims need to also take part in discussions on topics like political science, economics, sociology, and mental health.

Kuru’s book discussed the rise and fall of Muslim nations and civilisations and the possible factors leading to them.

According to Kuru, when Muslims were successful in the past, there was “a certain level of separation between politics, religion, academia, and economy”.

Meanwhile, Sara Salimi of student movement Demokrat Universiti Malaya said that in Malaysia, any discussion of separating religion from the state is considered taboo.

She said that the link between Islam and the state is further strengthened by the intertwining of the religion with the Malay identity, which makes any talk of secularisation harder to approach.

“Under the Federal Constitution, a Malay must be a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks Malay and conforms to Malay customs,” she said.

She said that Malaysians are often made a tool to garner votes in elections and the dynamics between religion and state are very real.

“If you go against Islam then you are going against Malays, and if you go against Malays then you are going against Islam,” Sara said.