Hari ni, saya sengaja bangun awal untuk ke institut kajian antropologi untuk suatu seminar. Kenapa ai interested sangat nak pergi? Sebab, presenter tu, iaitu seorang non-muslim yang claimed that she was from Malaysia tapi mengajar kat uni seberang Mesia, was going to talk about Islam and Malaysian politics.
Now, i felt that it would be interesting to listen on a non-muslim view about Islam in malaysia, plus, before going, i wasnt sure if she was indeed malaysia so i wanted to make sure she got her facts right. (gittew...macam la ai ni arif sangat tentang malaysian politics and etc...but i do read about it ok, from both leftist and right-ist point of view). anyhoo, i found her talk disturbing. I know, she has the right to her own views and etc. but when this view affects the image of my country and muslims in my nation, i felt perturbed. perlukah uols question the syariah court and malaysian jurisprudence. okla...i mean, from her talk and her pictures which i saw was sourced from malaysian insider, i knew which side of the fence she is standing in. the way she pronounces mahath.ir pon dah semacam ok!
anyway, she actually put pictures of malays stepping on the cows head, the church bombings, the rally outside high court when li.na.j.oy appealed for the religion status to be changed in her ic, pciture of that mount everest climber who died and was buried as Muslim against his wifes wishes. She was talking about how more liberal Malaysian Muslims were emmigrating. Err.....to be honest, i wasn't really confortable with what she showed. To me, she was painting a picture as if our county are bombarded with this aggresive muslims who would bomb places or hold rallys when they are not happy with something. and she said, the government backed up this people.
So, dengan muka panas and berdebar-debar, I voiced my opinion. I was the last person to ask her a question and I said: I am a Malaysian Malay Muslim and I am really disturbed with the way you portrayed Muslims in our country. I would like everybody to know that not all Muslims in Malaysia are like that. Then I asked, what do you mean by Liberal Muslim? There's Muslim or non Muslim. We abide by rules stated in the Quran. Those are rules which some may not follow. But still, those are RULES.
And then, I told her, as in LJ's case, in Malaysia, the constitution clearly states that a Malay is someone who is a Muslim. Beragama Islam. Dan, because of that fact, her religion cannot be changed in the IC. If tukar agama dalam IC, maknanya nanti kategori atau pengkelasan Melayu di dalam perlembagaan Malaysia akan secara otomatik tukar. So, macam mana kita nak pertahankan hak-hak melayu yang ada? Religion, is the only thing that is left to help define us as Malay. Kalau bercakap bahasa melayu, any tom, dick or harry can belajar the language, betul tak? So, what will differentiate Malays from the other races? By our religion. Dan dalam IC, hanya Melayu sahaja yang akan ada tulis Islam kat dalam IC dia.
Lepastu, she also said Malaysia banned Arqam because it had political intentions. Err...excuse me. So, to that, I said, One of the main reason Arqam was banned was because the way they practiced Islam, not because of political intentions. Dorang anggap their leader was so special kan? Macam mengaggungkan sangat leader dia because he was believed to be the decendent of Nabi Mohamad S.A.W. Tapi, kita, sebagai orang Islam should agungkan Allah. Bukan ke macam tu??
Then, she said, as she was replying to my comments, that the malays portrayed in her slides are just a minority (ha..masa mula-mula presentation tak de pulak nak buat disclaimer macam tu kan?). She said that Mesia is a peaceful country and bla bla bla...and she didnt mean to offend me or what so ever. tapi , tetap dia tak jawab soklan ai pasal liberal muslim.
pastu ,masa sesi minum2 kopi, she came to me and said..oh, i didnt mean theres liberal muslim. there wasnt much time so dia guna je term tu. oh. ok. but i still think that doesnt make it ok. because she did sort of implied that more muslims are migrating because of the laws imposed on them (tak leh minum alkohol...yg sebenarnye mmg diharamkan dalam Islam kan??) and that they were not free. Pastu she said, interfaith talks should be encouraged so that people would understand other faiths better and etc. hmm...i guess the idea of interfaith talks is kinda ok. tapi honestly, i am scared if being too open about discussing pasal religion and ethnicity would bring back memories about bloody culture clashes and etc.
hmm..what say you?
