Assalamualaikum :)
This is one of the things I kept thinking about, but have little confidence writing as I’m not sure if what I’ll write fully represent my thoughts. I used to think that if I don’t have the right words, or inspiration to write about an issue that bugs me much, maybe because it’s just not the right time to write it down. Or maybe, I’m just not good enough with words, period. See, even the intro seems weird enough. It’s kind of annoying when you have things to say, and to you, it’s very important, but you just don’t know how to put it in words. Nevertheless, I’ll try my best so my thoughts won’t just end up being, well, thoughts. I’m just going to put a disclaimer before anyone reads this post.
“This is not an easy-to-digest post. Not to say I’m too advance that people don’t understand, instead, because of my lack of skills in vomiting out my thoughts.”
Here goes..
Tolerate or celebrate in this post refers to our treatment to people who have different point of view in life than us, that might be inspired by religion, culture, political interest, etc. The problem is how we deal with these people.
I love this one particular Christian based (as they claim) conspiracy forum. The thing that I want to emphasize is how they (well, some..) despise Islam. They work hard to find evidence in Youtube, any news articles, any events that can relate Islam to violence. The Westerners (again, some..) fear that Islam would conquer their nation. These people would cherry pick the verses in the Quran, Hadith, or statements by some unknown so-called Imam that support violent. They spread the fear that Shariah would crush their society. The saddest thing of all is the misinformation spreads and people have this bad image of Islam, and they stereotyped Muslims. Sounds like I’m a bit defensive?
Let’s talk about Malaysia. I’m going to talk about the Muslims society in Malaysia, as I’m raised within this community. The situation where Islam is the Agama Rasmi (okay, have no idea what to call this in English now :p). What have we been told since our childhood? For example, Christianity movements threat this country. They move from town to town, even to rural areas, where the MPs don’t even know exist (I’m a bit exaggerating here..). They help the people; build schools and hospitals so that they can convert the people they help. In Malaysia, we have to admit, that we’re so sensitive with this issue, especially the Muslims. We say a lot of bad stuff about other religions. We have this negative image embedded in our mind when we talk about other religions. But do we really understand them? Or do we just judge them based from what the people, our old men, talk about them? Or do we just judge them because we believe their religions hold no value because we believe ours is the truth? Just because we believe we are blessed with the truth, doesn’t mean we have the right to mislead people to hate others who have different opinion about life, do we? Okay, now, where am I going..?
The worst thing in Malaysia, to me, is we let our ignorance lead our life. I’m talking to the Muslim Malays especially (and to others as well..). We tend to generalize people based on their ethnicity. We sometimes don’t even know the difference between a race, a country and a faith. For example, how many of us haven’t heard the term ‘Cina’ coined to identify non-Muslims? One might argue that this is just a casual term that has nothing to do with generalizing them to be non-Muslims. Well sir, with that attitude I’m going to say that we lack the empathy, and being selfish that expect others to respect our feelings, but not willing to share that sentiment with others. (These two situations (i.e. ignorance in religions and ethnicities, esp. in Malaysia) are a big concern to me that they need a special post themselves, maybe later..)
Now, the question is why is this happening. For those who cannot see, or prefer to turn their one eye off, this is happening all around the globe. My personal view is this is the classic example where the majority abuses the minority. Simple as that. Where one’s might defined by their numbers, where the public (i.e. the majority) has certain views (usually negative) towards others who are a bit different. This is usually done by those who claim to be the rightful owner of a place, or a country, and hold the majority in their society. Like I said earlier, this is not exclusive to Malaysia. It’s happening all over the world. From the third world countries to the most powerful country on Earth right now. They call for the minorities to return to wherever they came from (sound familiar?); even when they were born and they pledge their allegiance to the country they currently reside. Isn’t this just stupid? To me, these people just demonstrate their very limited knowledge of history, or justify their ill-treatment to others based from their anecdotes, and turn a blind eye to see the bigger and complete picture of the world history. Have these people who feel they’re strong, they are the righteous lord of a country, that they’re free to say whatever they want, do whatever they please to these minorities been minorities themselves? Well, shame on them if they have, that they don’t take any lessons from that.
We Muslims will all boil up if there is news that Muslims were treated badly. Our brothers and sisters were killed in Palestine (some argue that Palestine doesn’t even exist, well, in that case you know the place I’m referring to). But what do we feel, for example to the current church bombing in Egypt, supposedly done by Muslims? Don’t we realize how angry the Christians are? They would just say that this is another proof of the ‘Religion of Peace’ in action. Are we going to just sit silently, and treat this as just another news on TV, as this has nothing to do with us? Nothing to do with us? Really? Don’t we want to at least know what really happened and study if it’s justified in Islam? My point is, we’re all human beings with feelings and emotions. As we can get angry if something bad happening to us, so do others. So treat others with respect. Just because we are the majority in an area, doesn’t mean we can silence the minority. Remember, if we want to play this majority-minority game, no one would win. It’s our nature to find the differences between us, as this classic joke points out:
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off.
So I ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said.
I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?"
I said, "Well, are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious."
I said, "Me too! Are your Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian."
I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant."
I said, Me too! Are your Episcopalian or Baptist? He said, "Baptist!"
I said, "Wow! Me too! Are your Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord? He said, Baptist Church of God!"
I said, "Me too! Are your Original Baptist Church of God or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God!"
I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!"
I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off
Hence, lesson learnt? This stupidity must stop now!
Now, I don’t think this post will contribute positively towards the society. I’m not sure if people even understand what I was trying to say. One thing I’m sure of is; I think this is an important topic. There’re just times when I feel like sharing this concern with others, but I just don’t know how to convert these thoughts into words, and this post is a perfect example of that.
So, are we going to tolerate or celebrate our differences? The choice is ours.
Just sharing my $0.02
Cheers :D :D
p/s – This might be my lamest post, with weird terms (e.g. anecdotes? Do I use that correctly?) and well, as usual, my grammar. Haih..
