I am not the most religious person in the world but I am still disturbed about the recent melee involving my religion; Islam. We used to be able to insinuate matters whenever it involves sensitive issues such as religion or race. We know for a fact that a mere mention of a certain word publicly can cause discomfort among certain segments of the society. Racism for instance is a word people thread with so much caution so as not to imply something out of context. In fact we never need to utter certain words as we used to be able to read between the lines.
The recent influx of seemingly lackadaisical attitude towards Islam baffled me to the core. It is as if there are no more taboos in our country and you could just bash almost anything or anyone nowadays. Its a free for all and politicians seems to work this out for their own political mileage. We are taught to be courteous to our neighbours. In Surah An-Nisa' (The Women) Allah says:
"Serve God, and join not any partners with Him; and do good -- to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbours who are near, neighbours who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (you meet), and what your right hands posses: for God loves not the arrogant, the vainglorious." [4:36]
There are also many verses in the Bible that speak about respecting and loving your neighbours. Neighbours doesn't only mean literally but more towards an all encompassing definition. The Bible says:
"For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbour as yourself" Galatians 5:14 "
What makes social media great also makes it dangerous. Thus, more often than not we see stupidity being broadcast to the whole wide world through social media such as Facebook,Twitter,Blogs, news-portal and so much more. Social media gives people a voice, and with it they can express themselves however they choose albeit to some extent whimsically. The same social media tools were used to help the Middle East rise up against oppression and urban Britain riot. http://goo.gl/XnCyf
Muslims in the country were dumbfounded when Lembah Pantai M.P answered a simple question in an event organised in a church. She rightly pointed out that Malays do not have the rights to commit apostasy in Malaysia. However she went on to say that freedom of religion must also apply towards Malay/Muslim. If you are not a Muslim, that answer should be an innocent and somewhat liberal in nature. Nevertheless the country bare witness to a huge outcry by majority of Muslims in Malaysia. I don't want to delve more on the constitutional aspect of this issue. Suffice here to say that when you say something as provocative as that, there bound to be repercussions.
The trend of insensitivity towards Islam continue to snowball when The Chief Minister of Penang out of nowhere demanded the government to give Christians leeway to use the word ALLAH in their Bible. Its just plain peculiar that arguably the most pertinent word to Muslims can now be freely debated by non muslims. Where are the inter religion respects that our fore fathers proudly preached to us? At this juncture, I am beginning to feel that there are something terribly wrong about our society nowadays. I have a Chinese step mother and I love her dearly. She still keep a close relationship with her family even after she had converted to Islam. There are times earlier on that I struggled to accept her as part of our family but after all the differences we had, we developed a mutual respect and love towards each other. Now I cant get enough of Lotus flavoured moon cake; Halal version of course.
Patrick Teoh recent rants towards Islam clearly envisaged that the thin line of respect and love towards each other can easily be broken. I accepted his apology wholeheartedly but it still leave me with some bad taste. I think I speak for the majority of Muslims in the country no matter how moderate,modern or elitist they are; that we are so incensed by what had transpired. Patrick Teoh swift apology helped calm down the fire burning inside each and every Muslims but this basically teaches us one important thing; That certain matters should and must remain a taboo.
Patrick, this ain't funny okay! No pun intended.
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