Suppression and Oppression of the Minority Religion...

This blog entry is written in response to an article which can be found at

http://english.cpiasia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1978:enforcing-nep-on-minority-religions-&catid=198:helen-ang&Itemid=156

It's about the oppression and suppression in religion faced by the minority in Malaysia. As we are well aware of, Islam is the majority's religion. The author wrote an interesting piece but i would say i disagree with her in many aspects.

1. MALAYSIAN MUSLIMS' ATTITUDE

Headlines and blogs now a days seems to show Muslims are always associated with terrorism, intolerance and supporting harsh punishments. That, it is not a religion of love and forgiving. That Muslim emphasized on harsh punishments way too much. Like yesterday, i was reading a blog where the author condemned Sharizat for supporting the death punishment for those who dump babies resulting in the baby's death. The author questions why are the Muslims sooooo keen on the death penalty. As if they are thirsty for blood. Below i copy and paste a portion of that blog entry :

"I am not surprised that Shahrizat could say something like this because Shahrizat is a Muslim. Muslims around the world are well known for suggesting and carrying out terrible punishments against their fellow human beings. In Iran they are now on the verge of stoning a woman to death. In Saudi Arabia they behead people in public on Fridays. Also in Iran they have thrown liwat fellows out of helicopters in the air. In Taliban Afghanistan they used a tank to push a wall over some liwat fellows. In Malaysia our khalwat goons have caused the death of many young people who jumped off balconies and windows while trying to escape from them. Only Muslims are capable of doing things like this and then defend it too". The full version is at

http://syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.com/2010/08/shahrizat-says-kill-them.html

I don't know whether the Quran did state such punishments or the Muslims made up this punishments. But to throw people of the helicopter for liwat is too much. I would say stoning for adultry is too much too but if the Quran clearly says that's the punishment, i have no say then. It's God's law. It will override human law.

But i support death penalty for baby dumping is not because i'm a Muslim and i have a thirst for blood but i believe in the principle an eye for an eye when it comes to MURDER. The Westerns have come up with the idea that death penalty is inhuman, it's against Human Rights and thus death penalty should be banned and replaced with other punishments like life imprisonment. For them (most of them anyway), countries who carry out death penalty are "bad countries". I say MIND YOUR BUSINESS. Promoting freedom and being compassionate the whole time is not always a good thing.


In Malaysia, there are all kinds of Muslims, hardcore, moderate and liberal. the hardcore ones can be difficult to handle with because they can be insensitive to other religions. I've met these kind of people before and they are not pleasant. i know you love your religion but you have no right to insult other people's religion.

Islam and other Muslims get bad image because of these kind of people. Look at that stupid Osama bin Laden. He shouldn't have organised that September 11 attack because that is soooo not jihad. You killed innocent lives. In addition to that, he made Islam well known internationally as a religion of terrorism that supports the killing of non Muslims. This is what happens when you use violence.


2. THE RIGHT TO BUILD A PLACE OF WORSHIP

Some non Muslims in Malaysia claimed that they are being oppressed by not being allowed to built place of worship as much as the amount of mosque being built. This was one of the issues being brought up in the article mentioned above.

This involved politics. I'm not sure what are the requirements you need to comply with in order for the relevant authorities to allow you to build a place of worship. Do the government really just give permission without consideration if it INVOLVED building of a mosque and will give deep consideration and be more reluctant instead if it involved building other place of worship?

Logically, there would be more mosques because there are more Muslims. And you need to build a lot "suraus" and mosques because Muslims pray 5 times a day and the availability of suraus make it easier for Muslims to pray whenever they are traveling. Muslims need to be on time to catch their daily prayers and that's why you need to have these many convenient suraus and mosques.

A place of worship should be allowed to be built, regardless whether it's a mosque, church or temple if there's empty land available and it's a necessity due to the fact there are a number of people professing to that religion and the next place of worship is too far to travel to. You don't built place of worship to compete with other religion as to the amount of place of worships that you manage to built. That's utterly childish and stupid. You built one out of necessity. Sometimes i find the religions in Malaysia are in conflict with one another because they want to compete who are the best in everything and they want to compete who have the most followers. That's CRAP.

I'm pretty sure countries like France, US and UK don't have that many mosques and suraus either since the majority religion isn't Islam.

3. BANNING NON MUSLIM RELIGIOUS SOCIETY

Do you really have that problem in Malaysia? My former college have a few non Muslim religious societies. Of course when they give out pamphlets to promote their activities there will be disclaimer that it's NOT FOR MUSLIMS. What's with the disclaimer? The objective is to protect the Muslim community. Personally for me it's unnecessary because if you understand your religion well and your faith is strong, you won't fear going to other religion's activities. The disclaimer is to prevent Muslims from being converted. Don't tell me just by watching something or witnessing other religion's rituals and activities you can be converted? If you can be converted because of this, your faith is really weak. I mean you can convert, it's your freedom but people convert because they THINK and QUESTION the essence of their religion and other religion and not convert just because some kind of miracle happened to them. For all you know that can be the devil's work.

That's why the best conversion is one where you don't have to persuade other people as to the greatness of your religion and the miracles that happened but a meaningful conversion is one where a person takes the initiative to learn about another religion and ask around about the religion to get a better idea of it and in the end it is for him to decide whether he wants to remain in his religion or convert after considering many things.


3. NATIONAL SCHOOLS

The author also pointed this out :

"In some schools, doa (Muslim prayer) is recited weekly during assembly. However, if a Christian, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist prayer were ever recited in a gathering where Malay pupils are present, there will be uproar."

During my primary school days, i went to a CONVENT school. There would be a lot of Christian activities since the majority are Christians while the Muslims would remain in class. There was no issue with this this and i don't have a problem with it. Then when i entered secondary school, it was vice versa because majority are Malays and Muslim so you have to participate in Muslim activities while the non Muslims can do their own stuff.

If majority are of a certain religion, then let they do their thing while the minority to their thing. I remembered once where majority are Malays and then we have to pray for a student dead relative. The Muslims and Non Muslims were told to take a moment of silence and to pray for the deceased.

There are some national schools that may be overly Islamic to the extend that they ban the wearing of cross. Some national school even make and force you to wear head covers. I had a problem with this because the last time i checked, i didn't register in a ISLAMIC SCHOOL. I was studying in matriculation before. I read the regulations and it says the wearing of head covers are ENCOURAGED, not compulsory. But on my first day of orientation, the senior asked me why i'm not wearing a head cover and she starts to blah blah blah religiously.I know this kind of people meant well but things shouldn't be forced. A person can still be wearing a head cover and work part time as a prostitute. That's what happened when you forced people to do something. You know, sometimes things are not compulsory but some idiots have the urge to make it compulsory. In situation like this, a formal complaint should be lodged against the school itself and not to make an attack on the race or religion of that person.

4. OTHERS

A portion of the article states this :


"On the other hand, other religions are suppressed. One infamous incident occurred in 2004 at Christmas where the Selangor Sultan and assorted cabinet ministers were invited guests. At this official function, hymns mentioning Jesus could not be sung."

That Christmas incident is not tolerable. That's the problem with some Muslims, sometimes we simply give others reason to attack us over such a SMALL MATTER. What's wrong if the Christians want to sing about their God? It's a Christian event after all. Might as well you don't attend if they are not allowed to do their very own religious activity at their own special event. Do Muslims think they will be converted the moment they hear these hymns on Jesus? Seriously? Why are you afraid of these hymns? I'm being sarcastic here because i don't see any reasonable reason why you prevent the singing of the hymns mentioning Jesus on a Christmas event?


5. CONCLUSION

I don't think the minority religion are being suppressed that much except for some incidents. I've explained about the building of places of worships. There is no ban on non Muslim religious society in Malaysia. Schools that confiscate things that symbolises other religion are isolated incidents, lodged a complaint against that school itself instead of making it sound as if majority of the schools in Malaysia do that.

Then there was a big issue with the use of "Allah", even with that incident people want to attack the Muslims. How can you not blame the Muslims for being offended and suspicious? All of a sudden you want to use the term Allah? In English religious publications you can use the term Allah but you didn't. In Malay version too you very seldom used Allah. I said seldom because when i was 13, i came across a Malay version of a bible that uses the term Allah. This was in Sabah. I never heard my Christian friends use the term Allah. Why can't you just use the term "Tuhan"?

We could settle this diplomatically with reasonable explanation. Why can't you tolerate with the use of "Tuhan" instead? I wonder if you were to hymn in Malay you would use the word Allah? If majority of the Malay version of bibles used the word Tuhan since before, then it's only reasonable to stick to Tuhan.

I'm not biased when it comes to religion. I admit, certain decisions made by Muslims are unacceptable and illogical, like the Christmas incident not allowing hymn on Jesus. I wasn't even aware of the incident, perhaps because i was young and don't care about current events. i condemned the act of butchering the cow's head and throwing it at the Temple and torching of the churches. These offenders should get severe punishment because these acts create racial tension.