Spying is prohibited in Islam. Yet it is regularly carried out. The following explains the origin of the prohibition:
PRINCIPLE IX: Injunction against spying
Another law in verse 49:12 that have been traditionally narrowly interpreted as talking about personal conduct, when it does in fact have broad significance to government conduct is the injunction against any spying:
“… and do not spy…” (49:12)
The injunction against spying is general and is not limited to individuals. This means that government cannot conduct spying operations against its own citizens or for that matter against other nations, no matter how hostile they may be. The benefits of spying, if any, are highly suspect. The sort of people that are attracted to the so-called “intelligence” profession and form its leadership and cadres are, by the very nature of their job, untrustworthy and power-hungry characters. Moreover, in the absence of a real threat, they inevitably cause mischief to justify their ever-growing powers and budgets. Inevitably, at one point or another, they end up spying against and harming their own people.
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The following quote from the New Straits Times Online will also prove informative.
More than 10 years ago, the Selangor Religious Affairs Department set up Badar, a volunteer vice squad. The brigade proved to be so troublesome and riddled with abuse that it was forced to close down about a year after it was formed. A year ago, Jawi officials were at the centre of a controversy over the conduct of a midnight raid on a crowded nightspot.
The Cabinet then decided that there was no need for morality police. The parliamentary Human Rights Caucus and groups such as Malaysians Against Moral Policing have also spoken out against rigid social controls of behaviour.
Incidentally, that incident involving JAWI was one that was a clear cut case of the JAWI volunteer acting beyond his powers, and could also be considered a violation of the rights of the detainee. A woman who was hauled up with her friends from a disco was denied permission to go to the washroom to ease herself. When she insisted that she had to go, he told her to ease herself where she was. Her friends formed a circle around her and she proceeded to ease herself. While in the midst of doing so, the JAWI volunteer took out a camera and snapped pictures of the unfortunate woman.
Question: What happened to that JAWI volunteer? Why was his case shut down just like that?
However, there are many who favour a greater role for the state in regulating behaviour and for even more restrictive laws in the name of defending morality. Notwithstanding the official rhetoric of a modern, moderate and tolerant Islam, the underlying ethos of Malaysian-Muslim society in the last 30 years has been decidedly conservative.
This is especially true of the religious bureaucracies who would like nothing better than the power to round up the wayward and the authority to punish sinners.
Underneath all that contemporary architecture in the federal administrative capital of modern Malaysia lurks a mediaeval mindset worthy of a remote provincial outpost in Central Asia.
There is therefore a constant need to watch out for moral vigilantes and to stand up against the Taliban wannabes in our midst.
Malay Mail reports that JAWI thinks otherwise:
Meanwhile, the Federal Territory Islamic Department (Jawi) said its recently-formed voluntary squad is not an anti-vice police squad but acted as an advisory body for those committing indecent acts in public.
Its public relations officer Idris Hassan said the body had no power to arrest Muslim couples committing indecency in public or vice but could only advise them.
"This squad is formed with a sincere wish to advise Muslim couples to be decent and not to commit anything that could smear the image of the religion," he told Bernama.
He said this when commenting on an English daily report over the concerns of certain people on the formation of the squad which they deemed as a "spying squad" and would be acting like the anti-vice police unit.
Dismissing such concerns as baseless, he said: "They (the squad members) would only be advising but if any couple refused to heed their advice, they could not take any action."
Idris said the formation of the squad was in line with a new approach adopted by the department in addressing vice activities involving Muslims by taking preventive measures through words of advice.
He said the squad comprised volunteers who were sensitive about social ills within the Muslim community especially among teenagers.
"The squad will report to the authority of any circumstances that require enforcement and they could not take any kind of action," he added.
Apart from handling social problems, the squad members would also be lending their hand to those in need during disasters or other emergencies.
"The public should not be confused or concerned with the formation of the squad as it is not the same as the 4B Youth Movement volunteers squad that had been directed to disband by the Cabinet before," he added.
Why don't our newspapers write on the 4B Youth Movement?
The following is Al-Qaeda's instructions on espionage:
Using Open Methods
Using Covern Methods
(Not really relevant, but...)
Finally, it may be noted that the sources of Islamic law have provided justification for a law giving privacy rights to Muslims. There is no need to bring out in the open what has taken place behind closed doors, etc.
PRIVACY IN ISLAM: SOURCES AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES
One must note that all religious texts from the Qur>ån or the Sunna lie at the highest level of authoritativeness as sources of law in Islam. This makes the implications of their language a ready material for legal principles to be devised based on them. Therefore, a modern Muslim jurist could infer from these texts as much as may reasonably be understood from their letter. It is to the Qur>ånic and Sunnaic texts relevant to the issue of privacy that we shall now turn.
Several Qur>ånic verses emphasize the individual’s right to privacy. The most prominent of these are two verses speaking of the privacy of the home, stating “O you who have attained to faith! Do not enter houses other than your own unless you have obtained permission—°attå tasta>nisú—and greeted their inmates. This is [enjoined upon you] for your own good, so that you might bear [your mutual rights] in mind. Hence, [even] if you find no one within [the house], do not enter it until you are given leave; and if you are told, “turn back,” then turn back. This will be most conducive to your purity; and God has full knowledge of all you do” (Q. 24: 27-8; Mu°ammad Asad’s The Message of Islam). The expression °attå tasta>nisú, rendered as ‘unless you have obtained permission,’ may be translated more precisely as ‘until you have made sure that your presence is welcome.’ The word isti>nås here means seeking to establish >uns or comfort, that is, making sure that the potential visit by the prospective guest would be received in a positive manner by the host and that the host is prepared for it at its proposed time.
The Qur>ån even establishes a right to privacy for people vis-à-vis their family members—that is, within their own home. The Qur>ån (24: 58) specifies three times at least when explicit permission has to be taken before people could enter into the private domain (room, etc) of their parents: before the dawn prayer, during the afternoon (possible time for napping), and after the night prayer. This Qur>ånic principle applies to all Muslims, but young adults who have recently reached the age of puberty are simply encouraged in this verse to get accustomed to the habit of seeking permission when they want to enter rooms other than theirs, so that such becomes second nature to all members of the family.
Moreover, the Prophet of Islam is reported to have stipulated that potential visitors may not cast curious gazes into the inside of people’s houses when they draw near these houses in order to seek permission to enter them. The Prophet said “If one’s eye has entered a private place, the person her/himself has entered.” According to another report, the Prophet stressed this point by saying “If one’s eye has entered a private place, why should any permission to enter the place be needed?” Furthermore, the Prophet has stipulated that a person who attacks an intruder to prevent that intruder from spying on his/her private home is not liable for punishment for his/her attack.
These texts are sufficient samples of the textual basis for the protection of the privacy of a particular place exemplified by people’s private homes. But this is not all. There are texts that establish people’s right to endow privacy on meetings they attend in settings that are not seen as private in natura. Prophetic reports emphasize that, if a gathering was meant by those who attend it to be a private one, the privacy of those present therein must be respected—irrespective of where the meeting occurs. The Prophet Mu°ammad is reported to have said “Private encounters result in entrustment (al-majålis bil-amånåt).” This entrustment, according to Muslim jurists, must inhibit people from conveying any information about actions and sayings that occurred in private settings.
In addition, the Prophet of Islam has emphasized the duty of protecting the privacy of people’s correspondence and communication whether or not they take place in a private place. The Prophet is reported to have said “He, who looks into a letter belonging to his brother, looks into the hellfire.” This establishes that, even if a private communication is conveyed outside of a private environment, the nature of the correspondence creates a right to privacy that must be applied to the correspondence.
Even those involved in shameful and sinful acts do not completely forgo their right to privacy, according to the Prophet, who commanded that Muslims not dishonor their brothers and sisters who had been secretly involved in disgraceful acts by revealing their secrets. The Prophet said that a believer should provide a cover (sitr) for another believer who fell in the disgrace of sin.
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