Religion's Loss In Sense of Loving, Sharing, Caring and Forgiving

Early this year, the Brits are given a slight rude awakening with the unearthing of more historical findings of the famous King Richard III. The king’s identity was confirmed by the scientists of the Leicester University following the skeleton’s discovery at the car park in August 2012, buried by the Greyfriars after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Following the confirmation, things started to show up such as the artistic impression of the church prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, graphic visuals of how the Tudor propaganda vilifies Richard via Shakespeare’s play and of the indication by art experts pointing that a well-known portrait of the monarch that has the slightest signs of biasness.  Since then, there has been hardly of the play being performed. People are starting to see a different angle to the history that was shown to them more than 500 years after that series of events.

If that's what happened about Richard III, why not Chin Peng? After all, the existence of Internet has allowed users to look for alternate information to what is found the present books available in the market or at our home shelves.

There has been an admission by the English and the historians that the 1948-1960 communist insurgencies led by Chin Peng against the British have accelerated plans for independence by 10-12 years. Had Japan was not A-bombed at the end of WW2, Malaya would have been declared independent on 17 August 1945.

I can understand that many of us, especially those who were born pre-Merdeka are quite scarred by the horrors inflicted by the faction that was led by the man himself that it is quite hard to forgive such person and to move on. In fact the emotion before the moving on stage is the difficult part for most of us.

There is a sense of inconsistency where JI terrorists originally from Malaysia like Noordin Mat Top were allowed to be buried back home while just because Chin Peng is not a Malay or just because the name strikes prominently in the Malaysian history that politicians, government and people have started to get too emotional until the point they lose their marbles and the logic to think properly that they outright said no way Jose on bringing the remains back.

I was watching Hanipa Maidin’s speech on the Legal Profession Act amendment a few days ago and at one point, he was describing of how our authorities and sometimes leaders tend to act very emotionally rather using their heads to think properly under a very calm state of mind. No doubt this is exactly why the Malaysian society has still yet to match with their counterparts in the first-world countries, socially speaking.

Every religion in the world actually emphasizes on loving, sharing, caring and most important of all forgiving. Instead, most of the preaching now no longer emphasizes on that but instead merely points on sin, legal, not legal and most important of all, heaven and hell. Every Friday, there are news articles that shares what Jakim tries to talk during their Friday sermons. The texts are prepared by them, and imams are not given the free reign to decide whether to use their own sermon or to use the prepared text sermon.

The late Sultan Idris Shah of Perak wrote three days before his death that the religion has lost its allure and has the need to show the love and caring attitude (love thyself and thy neighbor mantra) rather than scaring the people with things that are sinful or talking just of heaven and hell. Turns out he’s right - that after nearly three decades since his passing things have taken a turn or the worst.

History has often shown by number of cases and scenarios that most of the Christian missionaries are much more successful than their Muslim counterparts. It is largely attributed to the approach that they undertake. It is noted that most Christian missionaries adopt the community service method and show them of how they can help the community there and how the community can help them in return. This would be in far contrasting with the more hardball approach that the Muslim missionaries would adopt. 

Further reading: RPK’s article The Approach (6 Feb 2013)

Towards Merdeka, JAKIM’s controversial sermon has painted an impression that vilifies the non-Bumiputra. And to add more insult, JAKIM seems to paint itself as someone who has a direct divine communication with God with so many recent non-sensical statements. They may have forgotten while they keep fingering other people as their worst enemies in the name of religion, it is they themselves that they are not aware of, as of one finger forward, three finger backwards.

So what’s the point of writing this? I am trying to say that despite all of Chin Peng’s atrocities during the communist insurgencies; it would be a rather less messy and let the wounds heal by letting his ashes being interred back in Sitiawan. Why would the authorities and UMNO in particular want to scream around and flog a dead horse that is called Chin Peng whereas there’s a more pressing national situation that would be addressed? Are they implying that as in the Spartacus movie they are like what Crassus would react and feared of Spartacus even after his death? Are you saying that a whole city fears just one man?

History is not always 100% accurate, as what the further discoveries surrounding Richard III has shown us. The Malaysian history as what we’ve learnt in the school books isn’t always accurate. UMNO and the police have already shot themselves in the foot by highlighting one man by the name of Chin Peng. On the other side of the coin, this has instead increased the curiosity of knowledge-seeking people that wants to see more of the history than what it was written on the surface. In fact what is written in the history books in school is just a scratch on the surface.

The society controlled by old men is somewhat driving many people towards mundane and in fact getting more people lazy and being manipulated. The internet, on the positive side has instead shed more light to what was hidden from the surface of the Malaysian history that we have known about.

When Words, Books and Who You Are Simply Become Blasphemous

There was a scene in the movie, (unfortunately which I couldn't recall its name) where the Marshall warns against going to war against Saladin and his army while the truce with Baldwin is still on until when the king dies. Upon saying that, the Templar army in the king's court immediately brushed it aside and calls the Marshall's warning as blasphemous. Similarly, these groups of people have started showing their nasty tendencies to brush or shove hard on things that do not match their ideals. Isn't that also quite similar to how right-wing policies operate right now?

In that context above, notice how LGBT groups are accused and badmouthed. Another example would be on how a bookstore manager simply gets charged and accused for distributing the "Allah Liberty and Love" book even she has no control over the selection. 

The problem here is that the religious authorities does not have any other solutions nor proper facts to dispute the scenario of LGBT or the contents documented by Manji. Instead of disputing, like animals they chose the brute manner. Does that make people look stupid because it shows that they are incapable of effective problem solving rather than outright hoping that people would forget the whole episode. 

More importantly, this makes people especially those who are simple minded and naive look more stupid. It keeps the shackles of the mind on the people. It's like you are told never to question anything at all, irregardless whether a subject matter has raise curiosity or otherwise. The Napoleonic wars period (1799 - 1815) has already freed the society mindset until conservatives and royalties have started to fear of the people uprising. 

Next, look at the recent attacks on the LGBT group of people. It goes to the extent that a deputy minister declares that these group of people are not protected by the Federal Constitution. On the contrary, the Constitution is silent on groups of people just as it is silent on who can be the Prime Minister. The attacks have gone from outside into going more personal, given by the attitude and approach by the religious police to go after them. No longer is your privacy is for your own, instead, just as few acknowledged that Malay society has started to mind people's business to the lowest degree - being a busybody and minding a person's private business - including who you are, what religion are you, etc..

Until today, the religious body, if they really disagree with the book, has not released a distillation, dissection of the questions raised by the Irshad Manji book couple with the proper answers to dispute and acknowledged the problems perceived by other fabrics of the society towards the religion they claim to preach and brag that they are pious.

We still have yet to answer the question of why there are still people inside the LGBT classification. Peer pressure and the present society conditions are form the most basic of answers into why there are still people there. We may have to blame ourselves that we have not paid attention to this people who maybe looking for help, consolation, and solace in the arms of people are prepared to understand their problems and helping them.

What compels them to do like that? Does God make them to do that? Science can take them to a certain extent but no further than their own answer.

Hard hand approaches by these religious police makes things far worse and creates more prejudice towards the system. In the case of the books, these kind of methods are in fact a precursor to bootlegging and piracy cases that still could not be put down effectively. It's the censorship and the inflexibility of the present policies that create much of the problems right now.

Most of the time, I noticed many of the usual clergyman do not go overboard with their way of life and wealth. As a model of humility they do not have those plenty materialistic possessions that a narcissistic person would have. Any religion would basically say that when you come to this world, you start with nothing and when you leave this world at the end of your life, you too will end with nothing in possession. Until today I am still unable to understand why these men who claimed to be pious, men of god would go raving around brandishing their "holier than thou" thing at everybody.

Then again, they claim to be that great but when you see them in luxurious cars on work to office or at lavish homes, it tells a different tale. These men speak things at times might be incorrect If these men claims themselves holier than thou just because their word is as if comes directly  from God, then they might as well spare the troubles and migrate to Saudi Arabia - sparing the troubles of others.

The Question That Was Never Answered

I have refrained from talking over the matters of the apostasy or the recent sexuality issue over the past few weeks because there is nothing much to say about apart from reading things of one party bashing the other party left and right that everyone has been talking about via press conferences, press releases and so forth. In fact, what Raja Petra wrote two days ago in his Cure The Cause, Not Symptoms piece actually underscores what I have been trying to say about in regards to the two problems above.

Most of you are focusing on and talking about the symptoms of the problem. All the comments you post are about the signs of the disease. And all your suggestions are about trying to cure these symptoms rather than getting to the root of the problem, the cause of the disease.

What both of them share in common is this both things: first, we Malaysians are very much of busy bodies in minding people's personal affairs and privacy until we have totally forgotten of the bigger problems we have. And then when disaster strikes, only we start to realize that we have been giving ourselves the wrong priorities. If people do not believe of the more bigger and evil problems at now, it is only after disaster that people would realize eventually. By that time, though it would already have been too late as a blot of oil / ink will have spoil the container of milk. I suppose this is already ingrates part of our local culture and while this is done, it also serves as a distraction to cover up bigger problems we should know about, not of keeping in the blue.

I am sure that many of us have seen how people react to the alleged apostasy case in the DUMC or the Sexuality Merdeka festival in a very nervous, kan cheong manner. There are people who claimed to be pious and deeply religious opened their mouths and screamed that apostasy is not allowed and those who did it should be punished..bla.bla..bla. Likewise those on the moment the Sexuality fest gets covered in the press, zealous people started screaming of why is there gays and lesbians in Malaysia, where there should not be one.

Equally the same thing as those who scream about is about the high handed actions by the authorities on those involved. For example, our number 2 cop immediately declares a ban on the Seksualiti festival and Hassan Ali for instance wanted the apostasy thing to be declared as a criminal offense outright not to mention on the extremes of those who wanted people involved in this to be stripped of citizenship and so forth.

Surely along the way, as I recalled these lines by Raja Petra: 

What happened to live and let live? And why must everyone live according to your value system?

The trouble with both Christians and Muslims is: 1) they always think they are right and everyone else is wrong; 2) they always think they are pious and take on a righteous attitude; 3) they refuse to live and let live and everyone must live according to their standards; 4) they do not tolerate differences of opinion and regard those who disagree with them as the enemies of Christianity/Islam.

-- Small Things For Small Minds

No matter the claim of how pious people claim to be or the big mouth small brain thing, there's a question that people ought to answer but to this day remains unanswered: Why or What made would a person want to do that?

I once asked this question way long back when I said that there are flawed policies introduced because there is a lack of understanding of the human psychology there. If I am to ask you a question in that context, maybe I can ask you questions like why is online piracy still rampant or why is still vandalism on the phone booth? These kind of questions can go on and on. But we still have yet to give an answer.

Occasionally, I would come across or listen to replies with the phrase "God willing", or  "God wills it" if you put it that way.  In the context of the apostasy, is that problem happening because a person feels that God wills them to do it that thing? It can be that way or, as what Dr. Mohd Asri said before, was this alleged problem happening because we have been ignored by those from our own religion that we have no choice but to look for help from others not in our religion? What must be addressed if the answer is either one of the two above?

The basic foundation of any religion is that any religion actually does not force their ideals on to others. It just answers what the Small Things excerpt said above. Compulsion is a no no, so to speak. So, when I thought of the aftermath of the Himpun rally, which drew only a meager 5000 people, I was asking myself, are those people really got a big mouth but a small brain?

On to the Sexuality Merdeka thing. As what Marina Mahathir said in reply to the detractors, the goal was to help and educate those groups of people that have been discriminated or having problems in the context of the law, not to promote it as what the detractors have alleged. Why are they behaving or What made them to do it was never answered before the open their mouths. And so, when Ambiga, Maria or Marina responded back to the allegations made by TV3 or Ibrahim Ali, they are unable to respond to the three women. Now do you notice that a big mouth but a small brain like those two will put you in a hesitant result?

I know there are people who would not take kindly to such opinion and critique, insisting that what they see of the religions are right. But we got to ask ourselves first and put ourselves in the A.A mode before you start doing rash things like the persons would announce, okay? If you are able to provide a very very good answer (carved to stone grade) to those above, you then have a likelihood of curing the cause.

Note: see also Let's Get This Straight

Violating The Basic Tenet of Respect

Conventional wisdom says that respect is earned and not to be forced with. So it is clear that it is forced with shown by that the latest JAIS fiasco raid. It is one of the case in point where the basic tenet of respect has been violated. This came not even less than two weeks after the similar case where Najib, when returning back to Malaysia said to the press that "respect Islam first then we respect yours".

There has been a perception that just because Islam is defined as the official religion of the country under the Federal Constitution meaning that there can be stamping the foot onto other religions. It is true that there are groups of people with such of mindset that if there is a slightest moment of an allegation of a Malay conversion to Christianity, as example, these kind of people, without thinking deeply would go frenzy and start making noises of violating their religion and doing things they are not supposed to do and so forth (e.g, the cow head demo in Shah Alam). The obsession of knowing things that are not so important seem to be engraved in the minds of those. 

The latest JAIS fiasco with police rounding up dinner participants and coming without any warrant of search shows no respect to other religions just because in the religion context, they are big brother and nobody should challenge them, even if they are in the wrong clearly. You only need to go back to the Crusades period of Baldwin IV where any Muslim and Christian are welcomed to be together in harmony. 

While many would start pointing fingers at others, many have failed to see the mirror side of themselves. They are mostly unaware that actions that they do are equivalent to forcing their perceptions and believes onto others, even if it is not really accurate as to what is defined in the holy books. 

One night, I went for a round of drinks with my usual Malay retiree friend who lamented that even though a Muslim prays five times a day, yet they still do corruption things, which of course violates a core tenet of Islam which mandates the need to fight the evils like that. Some people would call me an infidel (kafir), just because of my skin, my personal beliefs as well as me eating pork but yet, he admitted that even a kafir can behave and do things much better than they themselves. This was clearly illustrated by  Mat Sabu on Thursday which he said that: “Even when I tell them RM28 billion was lost due to corruption in Malaysia, they don’t care or can’t comprehend but the Chinese, as taxpayers, get angry,”

The complacency and who cares attitude adopted by these people are what Malaysia is heading to  - an abyss of worse things that they can never get out unless there is a mindset revolution and enlightenment. 

News articles about body snatching by religion officials, non-Muslim temple demolitions, child custody battle with conversion into count and the problems along the way would also give problem to others and poses the question of how non-Muslim religions are given the proper respect if there is an attitude of stamping onto others as leverage and demand for respect?

Respect is earned, not forced with. Unless it is a formal function with state leaders or kings / queens gracing their presence and include delivering keynote speeches, nobody would really care about the demand of respect, not unless a person does things that will help everyone regardless of creed and religion. In this case, this is what the GOM and JAIS is severely lacking. I must admit that the non-Muslim interfaith council won't go that much unless a Race Relations Act is proposed and defined clearly of how it would be done. Imagine seeing one big stamp vs  a pool of small stamps equivalent to the big stamp. How would that be? 

How will the Vatican take that issue? Not well, definitely. Not with after Malaysia establishing formal ties with the Vatican. They would surely in exchange ask for a consulate and will definitely monitoring the Christian affair in the country to ensure that the GOM lives up to their promise of respecting other religions, as what Najib told the Pope in Rome. And this? This has indicated wrong footing with them, breaking promises and then. 

I understand that Hassan Ali was summoned to give an explanation of the fiasco tomorrow and I would really like to hear what he has to say in his own words.

***************

‘Malays less sensitive on corruption than Chinese’

PETALING JAYA: PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu said many Malays do not seem to know that it is part of the Islamic teachings to have zero-tolerance for corruption.

Instead, the Chinese seem to be more sensitive and concerned about corrupt practices of the nation’s leaders.

“The second Qaliph Umar Al Khattab had a large country under his rule and when he often wore new shirts, the people would ask where he got his money from to buy them.

“That is what Islam asks of you, to be critical and check your leaders,” said Mohamad, better known as Mat Sabu, during a live interview on FMT RAW yesterday.

“But now when we mention to the Malays that Rosmah (Mansor) has a ring costing RM24 million, they are not stunned. But the Chinese are. In that sense the Chinese seem to be practising Islamic culture more than the Malays,” he said.

Mohamad said Malays need to change their mindsets.

“Even when I tell them RM28 billion was lost due to corruption in Malaysia, they don’t care or can’t comprehend but the Chinese, as taxpayers, get angry,” he said.

Mohamad also said that Umno would totally “collapse” when it comes to the urban and semi-urban seats but Pakatan Rakyat still had a long way to go with rural voters.

He touched on how the Umno-controlled mainstream media as well as the National Civics Buerau (Biro Tata Negara) have a hold on the minds of many Malays, and Pakatan needs to find a way to break that strangehold.

On the incident where he was allegedly rammed into by a police vehicle when he was on his way to take part in July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally, he said he was disappointed by accusations that he dramatised the whole episode.

“That’s very low politics. We don’t play with health. When Najib (Tun Razak) was sick, we prayed for him, when the Inspector-General of Police had a heart treatment, we prayed. Even with Ibrahim Ali, (although) I don’t like him… I called him and wished him a speedy recovery,” he said.

-- Free Malaysia Today, 4 August 2011

Home Ministry Hardline Attitude on Christians

The Christian community in Malaysia are pretty angry at the Home Ministry when they imposed two conditions on the release of the Al-Kitab (Malay-language translation of the Bible). Out of the books in held by Customs department, the bulk of 35000 copies are use of Borneo. The conditions mentioned: serializing the copies with a unique number and stamping it with "For Christians only".

The two conditions are considered as defacement of the sacred book. As the Bible Society said in The Malaysian Insider:

“Bible Society of Malaysia is alarmed by the defacement of the Christian bible by non-Christians chopping it with words that the Christians have not accepted or agreed to,” it added.

The BSM had earlier today refused to collect its cargo of holy books that had been detained for the last two years after the home ministry imposed two conditions for their release.

The society was stunned that home ministry officials had moved to act on their own and only notified BSM after the act, and called on the ministry to immediately put a stop to it.

“As the bible is the holy book of the Christians, due respect should be given to it by consulting the relevant Christian representative organs before any external text is inserted into the bibles.

“Bible Society of Malaysia calls upon KDN to stop chopping the copies of the Alkitab detained at Port Kelang [sic],” it said in the statement issued today.

Church leaders have stressed that they cannot follow the conditions imposed by the ministry, as it would mean desecrating their own holy book.

It has been noted that the requirement is not shown in the 1960 ISA Act.  And as a result, they are not going to collect it. If this case is another of propaganda by UMNO, then look at Interlok as well.

This latest episode is bringing in several matters that can be highlighted:

1. Forcing a school of thought onto others: although the scenario is similar to the Sunni vs Shiite school of thought episode, this also shows that the government is forcing the thought of one religion being superior than the others into people of other religions. The matter of Sunni vs Shiite was highlighted in my posting last December entitled : Forcing One School of Thought.

2. The Home Ministry's latest action indicates the hard line attitude and conservatism adopted by civil servants running government departments. This is also in addition to the attitudes of civil servants in the cases of Hindu Temple bulldozing. It also demonstrates the fundamentalist thinking of the Islamic religion by those in charge of this matter.

3. Conservatism in the Book Import and Quranic Texts division as noted - the notice was issued by the division secretary Zaitun Abdul Samad. (see pic above, circled). 

4. This is not the first time that hysteria of Christianity was played in Malaysia. In the 80s, the mainstream media played up issues of mass conversions from Muslim to Christianity but the whole event turned up false. In 1987, a Malay man converted to Christianity was detained under ISA for being considered a "national threat" and false accusation of propagating conversions. However, the detention was thrown out by the Supreme Court in 1988. This show "political threat" is considered "national security issue" 

5. This problem would affect more on the Sabah Sarawak site for their culture and custom is not the same as in Peninsular. For more elaboration including some points above, refer to Uppercaise' posting here.

6. As of this time, there are approximately 2.8 million Christians nationwide. I noticed that there is not much can be done by ranting anger at the Home Ministry and especially Hisham who claims to say that the conditions fall in line with standards and etc..The anger that has to be shown is vote anger..by the ballot box.

7. Unfortunately, many try to be holier than thou thing by saying that this religion is superior than the other. If you look at the diagram, Islam and Christianity are the same offshoot of the Abrahamic teachings. That means Islam and Christianity come from Abrahamic. However, for those who are under the falsehood to say that one is better than the other, perhaps it is better ,as in what Ahmad Ismail from Bukit Bendera used to say "Balik China" - in this case and inverse, to go to the desert in Saudi. The Father of Turkey, Mustapha Attaturk viewed this "holier than thou" thing as a religion interference to the secular state that rules on law, not religion law.