Sunday, 4 December 2011
In order to understand the reason for my write-up today, you have to do yourself a favour and click on the link given below ( an online new portal - Malaysian Insider ). Then read the article by Hafidz Baharom entitled " Is our faith so brittle " otherwise you'd be all blinky dinky and would have no inkling of what this is all about .
I had recently linked an article written by Hafidz Baharom
Having read the article and finding Hafidz Baharom's view a refreshing piece of critical thinking , intellectually stimulating and news worthy, I then linked it to my facebook. . The following were the comments based on that article which I had posted on my wall and the reply/remarks by my good friend Datin Zaleha Shamsuddin
I so hope more of Hafidz Baharom are out there and zilch of Ahmad Maslan . Dear GOD, make Malaysia safe again.
This is my reply to her
Dear Datin Zaleha Shamsuddin
We have been good friends for some years now and sharing the same age, month and year of birth had made our friendship more meaningful . Added to the fact that you were a devout Muslim and seeing you fulfilling your religious obligations conscientiously with great effort ( despite going through trying times with regards to your family matters and poor health ) I held you in high regard and had valued our friendship. There were many a time when your strong opinions on matters were very different from mine but I did not pursue them as I was and still am of the view that everyone of us has a right to express our views ( like I always say, " to each her/his own " ) so long as we don't hurt or offend others' sensitivities In that regard, our different faiths and religious idealogy had never given us any issues in the past and we had even on some occasions. discussed our different religious philosophy in a cordial manner .
So you will understand why I am now so shocked, appalled and deeply offended by your unwarranted, crude and coarse remarks you had written about ' my God/Gods ' .
I had much respect of you as a friend and more so when u were always quoting the verses from the Quran in all our conversations. I was thus under the impression that you were a very pious, devout, erudite and true Muslim who understood the real meaning of Islam - a religion of peace and knowledge as all religions of the world are in my view. Sadly, I realise now that it was just a facade and you are not what you portray yourself to be . A true Muslim or for that matter, a true follower of any faith would never stoop so low as to belittle another religion/faith for a true believer in GOD ( doesn't really matter which one )would ultimately realise that all paths lead to the same Source.. Only the roads taken to reach the Source are different .
Taken from your fb entry too were these words as written by you :
Selamat maal hijrah, may it be a more wiser, humbler and grateful year for all of us
I guess that you don't practice what you preach. Perhaps you should take time to sit down and think what ' wiser, humbler and grateful ' means. In my book, it means I am forever grateful and blessed for all that I have now, that there are far more enlightened people around us who do not flaunt their knowledge and ' ketuanan ' superiority and lastly ' wiser' means to know when to open my mouth and when to keep it closed .
Incidently , if you read your Maal Hijrah message carefully, you'd realise that ( 1st mistake )even your message is worded wrongly ( sigh) like everything else you write la ...... you are wishing for the year to be wiser, humbler and grateful ? looks like you don't want yourself nor your friends to be wiser , more humble,and grateful (2nd mistake - no such thing as humbler, sorry, but that's the language teacher in me talking). A year cannot be wiser, more humble or grateful dear.... Words like wiser, more humble and grateful are character traits and adjectives used to describe living things/people . Tsk....tsk ......tsk...
An educated, intelligent and titled person like you should have known better than to write highly offensive and tasteless remarks on other faiths/religions of which you have no in depth knowledge nor understanding at all. But then again, as my good friend, Tengku Norashikin said when I had discussed this with her, " not all educated people are intelligent and not all intelligent people are educated ! " I guess I can see now in which category you have placed yourself
If you are mature enough and put on your thinking cap, you would understand that if GOD ( it doesn't matter yours or mine ) had wanted to have only 1 faith in the world , He wouldn't have created all the other faiths just for fun now, would He ?
Coming back to your remark : Which one of your Gods ( to safe Malaysia) since I have so many '
Really, Zaleha , You want to know which God I'm referring to ? And if you do know which God I'm referring to, would you want to make an appointment and demand an answer from " my God/Gods ' as to why our beautiful country is not safe anymore but going through endless mega scandals of sleaze , corruption and blatant misuse of taxpayers money running into billions while the ordinary Joe/Jane Public is struggling to put food on the table for their kids ? . Or maybe you would like to ask ' my God/Gods, why our politicians are using religion to divide the nation along ethnic and religious lines and perpetuating the ' Muslims/ Non-Muslims segregation in all aspects of our lives ? Why not just treat all of us as Malaysians. Full Stop. ? Seriously , Zaleha, would you be asking these questions or ask for a List of my Gods and what are their job descriptions?
On a lighter vein, looking at the horrendous list of problems Malaysia is going through, even my many 'Gods' won't be enough in numbers to help solve the problems we are facing !!
We all have strong beliefs in our own faith and beautiful Malaysia is home to all the major religions of the world. Even then, our education system has from childhood ingrained in us the wrong methodology of the word 'tolerance for all other religions ' which really does not say much for the Ministry's education standards . Either that or they were severely handicapped in the language department, for the proper word to have been instilled, would have been ' respect for all religions '. As such, religion and politics are the two things which we can never comment upon publicly as we please in a religiously and politically polarised society as ours.
If you still want to comment , which I personally think is your right , then you must be prepared - have a thorough and in-depth knowledge of the subject matter you want to discuss , your character and knowledge being able to stand up to scrutiny, being open to counter criticism and being able to cogently reason it out intelligently in a rational and calm manner without shooting your mouth off like a monkey and thumping your chest like a gorilla . These guidelines apply to anyone irrespective of any particular faith.
Problem arises when one party/segment of society feels that he/she /they have the right to criticise the other but cannot accept the same criticism put back to him/her/them. The standard reply I have seen and read is the ' others ' ( Non-Muslims) cannot question Islam because i ) it is seditious ii) Non-Muslims have no locus standi iii) even Muslims cannot and don't question their faith/tenets/hadiths, so who are we/others ?. Then, it's not a level playing field and bias and bigotry takes over ( I remember the Malaysian Bar Council's Interfaith dialogue which was vehemently and violently opposed with racial slurs and condemnation and even the Police Force did not do anything to stop them)
Hafidz Baharom's article was well thought out and written and his reasonings were logical by any standards . I found his explanation plausible, stimulating and it made sense. The article was based on his thoughts and opinion , however. If you read the last line of the article, it clearly says :
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
I simply recommended his article for reading in my fb . At no time did I question his faith or make any downgrading remarks about his religion. He does however, asks some pertinent and common sense based questions for his leaders, and readers alike to think and remark upon. My remarks of there being more of H Baharom like public citizen in no way touched his religious upbringing or faith.
I say again, I simply recommended his article for reading and made a simple statement of ' Dear GOD make Malaysia safe again ' to be like the old times when there was no racial distrust, no such thing as constantly being identified as Muslims and Non-Muslims in all spheres of our lives , when we could greet and wish each other without fear of bigotry, when we as true Malaysians could visit and partake of our other friends' hospitality during festivals and celebrations freely , when there was no rampant corruption and sleaze on a global scale........ I still remember a few years ago, the Perak Chief Hadi issued an edict or something wherein Muslims cannot even wish or give greetings to their Non Muslims friends celebrating Deepavali/ Christmas..etc . Then there was the Yoga controversy - Muslims cannot do Yoga exercises... it will weaken their Islamic faith.. seriously ( lol)! There are 5 branches of Yoga and Hatha Yoga or the physical Yoga has nothing to do with one's faith. It is purely physical in nature consisting of stretching exercises/poses meant to tone and make the body/joints flexible and at the same time stimulating/massaging the 7 internal endocrine glands in our body, which if becomes sluggish, will cause major and severe health problems. Go read up on general science.... . The idiom " A little knowledge is very dangerous " is so so 100 % true for people like... well... you know.............................
If at all you were as intelligent as I thought you were, you could have given your counter reasons for H Baharom's article and put forth your replies for his many pertinent questions ( not mine, comprende ? ) like below
How about lobbying for religious institutions in every state to ensure that hospitals have an imam on duty to counsel the sick and the dying? How about speaking to malls to disallow the distribution of any fliers of ANY RELIGION in a mall, since it is a form of disturbance that makes people uncomfortable?
How about lobbying for adult courses in religious studies for those who apparently didn’t get enough of it after 12 years in both primary and secondary schools?
You already have people going around parks at night to so-call ‘cegah maksiat’ and even nailing warnings to every gazebo in Taman Tasik Shah Alam. Why not use the same resources to educate the ummah and even raise the welfare of the ummah instead of spending more cash on a new building?
So please, dear Datin Zaleha Shamsuddin, be more circumspect of what you think and write in public media . I do really wish you had not written what you wrote and I also understand that one of my fb friends did reply you ....... .. I presume there were some heated exchange of words on my fb wall but by the time I had steadied my nerves from your indecent attack on my faith, ( I was too stunned and shocked by your words to resume my fb for a few days ) and opened my fb, both your remarks were withdrawn from my wall. I only knew about the exchange from my very good friend, Tengku Norashikin , who being a true friend, did not take sides and gave me an impartial reasoning which allowed us an intellectual discussion on the matter.
I hope you won't take up arms and go on a warpath again if I say " Dear GOD, let there be more of Tengku Norashikins in Malaysia !
I end my piece by quoting a very very wise saying which I always quote to my 16 yr old son, Arvind, whenever I feel he talks too much " WISE MEN HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, FOOLS HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING . I hope Zaleha takes note of this too.
Happy reading and painting
Lakshmi
Ps: My next article will answer Zaleha's question - Why I have so many Gods
