Perak Mufti Datuk Harussani Zakaria had only informed a group of people at a closed-door meeting at the state mosque of the allegations that some Muslims had converted to Christianity, said Datuk Seri Tajol Rosli Ghazali.
The Perak Mentri Besar said the objective of the meeting had been to control young people so that they would not go astray.
(source)I have enough of the confusions often brought up by the higher authorities. Very often, these group of Muslims see my faith in the wrong light.
ONE – Christianity
I agree that there are many ‘branches’ of Christianity, some of which are ajaran sesat using Jesus’s name. So, it is very unfair for Muslims to group all into this category. Just like we don’t lump all Muslims into Ayah Pin’s followers.Eventhough many of the Muslims scholars are able to discern but will they tell their fellow Muslims about this? Or do they continue to let the misguided to continue remain in the dark?
TWO – Pengaruh barat
What the Muslims are afraid of is often pengaruh barat of the immoral kind. But not all orang barat are immorals. And not all orang barat are Christians. So, don’t lump orang barat, pengaruh barat and Christianity into one.
THREE – Catholics Christians
The fiasco at the church in Silibin, Perak is caused by Muslims worrying that fellow Muslims convert to Catholics. Let me tell you, it is NOT easy to just convert to Catholics. We have to go through a full year of soul searching, several rites (which is a detachment from our previous faith) and only get to be baptised on Easter (usually around April). And it may surprise some Muslims and non-Catholics that the Catholic faith have stricter ‘rules’ than Islam. For e.g., no pre-marital sex, do not practice birth control, no divorce, no infidelity, no IVF and many more. The only difference is probably we eat pork because God says He created all the animals for us to makan. And yeap, good Catholics (which I didn’t say I am 😛 ) pray a few times a day too.
So, to those who are so concerned about the ‘young being led astray’, I will say, “Chill it, dude. You are looking at the wrong direction. The young that are led astray is not because of Christianity. They are lured by Setan himself. How about taking a good look at the root cause of it? Maybe if you relaks sikit brader and stop being such a moral police, your younger generations will find the true beauty of Islam?”
Enough of making my faith looks bad. Solemnly I say to you, the last thing you should worry is IF Muslims convert to Catholics. Because they are coming into a much more ‘restricted’ faith. Of course, I am not saying that they should do it. What I am saying it, don’t worry lah, all these people who are going to convert to Catholicism have God in their heart, they know what they are doing. It is God’s calling.
Oh ya, I do have one very strong stand. Do not mix religion with politics. Because politics is about money, power and control. And God says….No servant can serve two masters. You either love one and hate the other. God is at one end of the spectrum and money is the evil end, Mr. Setanmoney. Simple?
*remember, no bashing of other’s faith, ok?*
Added :Some weird new stuffs related:
- Lucia blog about crosses on Moo the icecream
Good post Lillian. Getting fedup with all these religious overzealouness in this country.
Well said.
“*remember, no bashing of other’s faith, ok?*”
I second that! It’s a shame how stereotyping can lead to so many confusion and misunderstandings.
Good post, but might get u into trouble, but still, good post and a very well reasoned argument.
One thing that I always find amusing is that they always equate Christianity as Budaya Barat, but little did they realise that Jesus Christ was from Asia, lived in Asia, Died in Asia and Rose from the Dead in Asia. Or have we forgotten that the Middle East, or Israel for that matter is part of Asia?
qua vadis beat me to it.
yup, christianity is a middle east religion.
*Chewy has been silenced because I do not like what he said. If you can’t respect our God, don’t get into the conversation.* (Lilian)
I feel that firstly everybody needs to understand themselves first.
Muslims need to find to root cause why people (if any) apostate (murtad). And, what is the attraction of others. There must be something that the system failed the umat/ people. They must correct the root of that failure. No to put fences around people when, when the rot is being fenced in as well.
Part of the attraction of reading this blog is understanding others, appreciating them for their differences.
In the AlQuran it is stated:
49:13. Hai manusia, sesungguhnya Kami menciptakan kamu dari seorang laki-laki dan seorang perempuan dan menjadikan kamu berbangsa – bangsa dan bersuku-suku supaya kamu saling kenal-mengenal. Sesungguhnya orang yang paling mulia diantara kamu disisi Allah ialah orang yang paling taqwa diantara kamu. Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Mengetahui lagi Maha Mengenal.
Loosely translated: O mankind, verily we have created you from a man and a woman, and made you into nations and tribe that you may know each other. Verily the most bestest ( 🙂 ) of you in the sight of Allah is the most pious of you. Verily Allah is the most knowing and the most cognisant.
I hope you don’t mind Lilian, I takut nanti orang katolik kata I nak convert org into Islam pulak. But I believe you guys are to matured for that.
So we get to know each other-lah. God knows. If the Muslims are not doing their job to attract their own people, God knows-lah.
I believe the muslims must do a lot more of introspection (dalam kasi cari apa hal), I believe the International Islamic University must do something.
During my time there we studied cmparative religion, we had inter-religious dialogue with all religion. The result is that I see many positive mannered Malaysian. Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Ghulam Sarwar (Inter Faith Council) is one of them (Graduating Class of ’93). Also Penangite. hehehe.
However, the University must be able to translate this culture of tolerance and understanding into the Muslim people and Malay psyche.
send fires and flames to f1re80@yahoo.com
*nod nod nod*
Agree. One thing auntie din mention about stricter rules in Catholic faith is that we are not allowed to polygamize.
The shallow-minded farts (we know who) are always equating christianity with pengaruh barat, they tot all angmohs are christians. Bodoh punya babi! Seems like their mentality on ‘budaya timur’ is covering from head to toe exposing only the eyes. If it’s so damn easy to convert then more than 90% of the world’s populations are Catholics liao lor. Double idiot!
A lecturer in one of my classes once made a sensitive religious remark. He said “Islam is the true religion from God, other religions are made up by mankind. Al-Quran contains the real teaching of Islam and it is not written by man. Others like the Bible, the buddhist’s, the whatever’s are all fake. They are all esp Christian from the west”
I was so furious that I wanted to f*** him kao kao on the spot but being one of the only three non-Muslims in the class, I thought better of it and kept quiet.
Sigh~! Things in this country are getting more chaotic as more and more assholes come up with stupid remarks, or shall I say, ulasan dan pernyataan and tidak berasas. I say, they are the ones NOT bertamadun and I won’t hesitate to add NOT terpelajar.
Time and again, certain people cannot accept why their young people go astray. It’s so convenient to point a finger at the western influence while not realizing the 3 fingers pointing back at oneself. I suppose for them, submission means being beaten mentally into a pulp of helpless surrender, not submission arising from pure conviction. No wonder got so many zombies around. The walking dead.
hear hear for fire80!, See this is the kind of muslims that will propel the nation forwards! I know there are many like fire80, but the silly dumb ass ones, like clare’s lecturer totally mars the rest, and cast super doubts to the islamic faith.
alphabeta -You gotta read fire80’s blog. He just started recently after I pestered him like months already.
perky – You are right, it is easy to blame and our country lives on the policy of blame. 🙂
Clare – It is sad that a few handfuls poisoned the minds of so many. I grew up with all Malays and sit through Ugama class and I like Islam then but now, I am hearing different things from what the Ustaz and Uztazah used to teach. And Jesus said,’If your eyes caused you to sin, gouge it out and throw.” I bet our MPPP President will be blind now. LOL.
fire80 -Thanks for that wise input. If there is any religion that I can connect with, it is Islam. The ‘Tuhan yang maha pengampun, maha penyayang’ kind. Not the one I am hearing from the mosque. I hear so often of asking the people to mandi, pakai minyak wangi, jangan makan bawang macam orang Arab dan lepas tu datang ke masjid buang angin”. I swear, these are the sermons. LOL. Maybe they should think about reducing the volume?
lulu – People choose to close their eyes and claim Jesus is the crazy angmoh out to draw people away.
QV- LOL, not the kind like yours. That one I langsung dare not comment. I did read it, you know?
vern/pablopabla/dylan – It is one of those things that I like to get off my chest after too many sermons I hear (from the state mosque).
I’m glad to read a clear and wise comment from fire80.
Oh Lil…I’m sorry for you that you got to hear that every friday, maybe. But if you are not aware, most mosques follow some text prepared by certain dept. controlled by you-know-who. Other than that, some like to add something that sometimes sound ridiculous…like the one you mentionedLOL.
Seriously, reading your entries yesterday, I felt embarrased that such statement came out from a fellow Malay/Muslim.
One of many people in Malaysia that I’d rather see them shut up, and sleep in the parliment than open their mouth and make things even worse.
Thank you Lilian for your support and encouragement.
All I know is, since the day Europe society adopt secularism, their living standard is booming. It is impossible for Europe to boom on science and social development with religious interference.
We all know that, any interference for a new idea/development, are sign that show those in power, afraid the changes will render them powerless.
p/s: Beat me, I never know after 2 year using the nick, Walls introduce a Moo ice cream with a cross 😉
its not easy being Catholic. when ppl want to bash the Christians, the Catholics got it first – remember the caricature? Catholic churches got burned down, priests and nuns killed…does anyone bother to check if the artists are Christians? hey a large number of Europeans now don’t believe in God. look at the number of films and books that insults Christianity particularly Catholicism (Da Vinci Code) and these are mostly done by the Westerners too. so it is very stupid of ppl to equal the West and Christianity, yes they maybe related in many ways but not equal. look at Christmas, it is no longer about the birth of Christ, it is all about just “season’s greetings”! look at the Christmas cards…….no verses from bibles, no pictures of the holy family, no wisemen, no angels, no wishes and blessings of the Lord to the receiver – its just plain best wishes! just pictures of reindeers or snowman!
and like what lilian said, it is not easy to convert into catholicism, you have to go through 1 year of RCIA where you learn a lot about the church and at any point in time some will leave after finding out certain things they do not agree with or after getting bored with all the lectures and/or after their initial enthusiasm wears off, but hey the church is not concern about quantity here but quality. at the end of the day, they are the ones who decide whether to convert or not, not the church and if there is no genuine love for the teachings of the church and the love of the Lord, the converts will simply leave in a few years time. and for those like lilian who have been through it all, i believe they genuinely want to convert and not a half hearted effort. the church do not hide anything from the elect during RCIA, the church do not give half truths and paints only rosy pictures of the church to lure them. the church gives the elect 1 year (soul searching) to make up their mind after getting to know all that they need to know in order to make good decision for themselves. they can leave anytime they want. and even after converting, the church never stops a person from leaving, it is their decision, their life – of course the church will try to help (counseling) the person with whatever it is that is troubling them (because the church cares) but the final decision rest not on the church.
so like what lilian said, stop making the Catholic Church and Christianity (in general) look bad more so in order to make yourself look good in the eyes of others.
hello….i don’t want to say much…have u seen what happen to mosque at acheh,indonesia…the mosque that still stand even has strike by the big tsunami…all the tree all gone but that mosque still stands…which GOD that save the mosque???i advise u to learn about al-quran and then comment when u have learnt it….every single word in al-quran is truth…ok…thank u…