By Ariff Sabri, Raub MP
We Malays often pride ourselves as good Muslims, compassionate, reasonable and not easily given to extremes. And if Malay people say- we are all those, except we don’t compromise on religion, I will respond by saying, that’s a load of crap. For as long as I remember, we have been tolerant Muslims, showing understanding and compassion towards others not of the Islamic faith. Most of all, as Malays and Muslims we show tolerance and compassion towards the aged, women and children.
When Jawi responded highhandedly in the case of Kassim Ahmad who is an octogenarian, I was taken aback. Jawi seems to operate on the basis of might is right. When it responded in the same manner but with extraordinary speed and efficiency in the case of 3 young girls rubbing bodies with Korean pop stars, I am shocked and said- these are young children and teenagers. We might as well lock them up, ban them from driving and just prepare them for marriage, most probably to some lusty ustazs.
I have not seen Malay people trending towards paranoiac intolerance as we do now. It’s happening because the leadership of this country is too weak to assert itself and affirm that we are a liberal democracy and a secular state. I am beginning to believe when a few years ago Tun Daim told me, Najib hasn’t got what it takes to run this country.
I am shocked to see that we are slowly losing these qualities. Perhaps this a sign of the creeping middle-eastering, talibanising, boko-haraming of certain people of influence in charge of religious departments. I hope not. But people might mistake us Malays of trending towards those behaviour in our treatment of the old and young. To old people like Kassim Ahmad, we want to finish him off. To young children like those young girls showing affection to Korean pop singers, the voice of the unreasonable sounded like wanting to lynch them.
I am urging for some sense of balance here. These few days, Muslims in Malaysia have been tied up with the issue of 3 young girls hugging and kissing their pop idols. Those who are saved, who think they enjoy salvation, please don’t be hasty to condemn them. Some people seem to think if we crucify these girls Malaysia will be saved from damnation.
People come up with a variety of schizophrenic and paranoiac responses; the k pop stars are agents of Christianity, they are agents of Israel. There is a big conspiracy of enemies from without to destroy the moral fibre of Muslim society.
So the government must ban these kind of concerts. I am asking- why ban the concerts? Ban Muslims from attending such concerts. Non-Muslims may want to watch them and we Muslims should not be concerned with the non-Muslims’ moral depravities right? We look after our own flock.
How do we look after our own? We have lost the compassion, tolerance, understanding and neighbourliness that made us Malays in the first place. The harsh comparison has surfaced. Muslim women in Syria fight for a cause. Accordingly, they are more Islamic and deserving of adulation and admiration. They are the role models of Muslim women.
Muslim women in Malaysia? They commit sin when they go on stage and embrace, hug and kiss their pop idols. Because of these 3 girls, God will punish us. Will God punish us all because as a people we sit back ad allow this government bully us, intimidate us, at war with its own people, commit corruption, steal public money, mismanage the economy? Will God punish us more because we allow some people the means to play God , judging and punishing people here on earth when God Himself chooses to do that in the afterlife?
I pray God will punish us more severely because we excuse those who commit evil things because they are of the same race and of the same religion as us.
*This article was first published in sakmongkol.blogspot.com
*The opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the vies of The Rocket
