Yin asks, “Will the ulamas reflect if they are part of the problem for the social ills among the Malays?…”
Yin: I have been told that there is a Muslim/Malay divorce every 10 minutes. Every 10 minutes a family breaks up. Every 10 minutes a woman is left (often for another who will be left in turn and so on – so easy it is to talak (divorce) a woman). Every 10 minutes some children are left without a father (the vast majority of divorce are male initiated so I have been told); every 10 minutes there is a broken family. Every 10 minutes a woman has to go out to find work to feed the family because often husbands refuse to keep up the alimony for the upkeep of his discarded family. Every 10 minutes children are left neglected and a social problem emerges.
Do you know the majority of drug addicts are Malays? I have not heard of a non-Malay Mat Rempit. And how many cases of child molestation or incestuous relations in the Malay community?
Yet this is a community that is most ‘religionised’. So what went wrong?
Where does the problem lie?
Islam is not the problem. Institutional Islam is. Political Islam is.
When religion is used as a tool of control; when religion becomes the handmaiden of politics and religion is forced upon those who have lost faith and remain Muslim only in name;then problems occur. And when the religious establishment; to preserve its monopoly of power; refuses to even countenance a different voice within Islam, then it spells trouble. At least then a Muslim can find an Islamic voice that speaks his heart; but now I am told many Malays have left Islam for something else.
When a religion is focused on rituals and laws and is intolerant of ‘deviants’, it misses its true mission of bringing spiritual upliftment to its flock.
When the religious establishment closes one eye to corruption on a grand scale, what does it tell its followers?
When the relgious establishment closes both eyes to unIslamic practices by the rich and powerful, while it flogs a poor woman for drinking beer, or charges a poor woman for khalwat for daring to be with a man alone, while the rich and powerful fornicate in posh hotels, what message does it send? And while the ulamas with their fat salaries and perks, pontificate from the pulpit about the road to heaven while the poor do not have enough to eat; what does it tell the rakyat? Munafik!
Social problems in the Malay community
Why don’t the religious demi-gods force the government to spend more money on solving the social problems in the Malay Community? To provide a more generous welfare payment for the poor and marginalised. Why not use your religious police to track down the errant husbands who refuse to pay for the upkeep of their “talak-ed” wives; instead of playing peeping tom.
And why not ask for more funds to help the truly poor instead of more mosques and religious schools. Allah does not need more edifices to glorify Him. No mosque can equal the splendour of his creations. I am sure He would be happier to see His people better taken care of than have palaces of worship.
And more importantly why not preach Peace and Love and Tolerance and Honesty and Kindness to all creatures; instead of division and the marginalisation of kaffirs, and of other Islamic sects in our country. Better still, why not stay out of politics?
When an Islamic party tells its congregation that it is better to have a crook who is a Muslim, than to have a kaffir who is honest, then surely he is doing Islam a disfavour.
Spread the message of spiritual Islam
Why not spread spiritual Islam instead of a dogmatic practice based on man-made laws? When rituals become more important and rules are used to keep order; then you lose the message of Allah’s love for ALL his creations (even LGBTs and kaffirs) and not just those sanctioned by the ulamas; then surely you are spreading the message of a true Islam – a spiritual Islam.
Religion – any religion – is not about a set of rules (most of it man-made yet) attributed to God. And the custodians of these organised religions put themselves as the sole interpreter of God’s will. Other religions may condemn the unbelievers to hell, or even ex-communicate them.
Only in the case of Islam do they stone to death apostates, chop off the hands of thieves, flog the rule breakers, grab corpses and forbid marriages of Muslims with kaffirs. All in Allah’s name.
Why did Allah not stone Adam and Eve to death for disobeying Him? Or cut off their hands for taking the forbidden fruit? Please explain.
I am not trained in theology; but in my view books obfuscate and confuse what is simply a spiritual thing – a matter of universal love; kindness to all irrespective of creed or race; belief in God. Follow your own way how you want to talk to HIM. He understands every language not just Arabic and He does not care how you pray to him or how many times as long as it is from the heart.
In this Christian holy month of Lent and the coming holy month of Ramadan (for Muslims); may both Christians and Muslims reflect on the killings in Christchurch and the bombing in Colombo. Let us pray that Malaysia will not degenerate into an extremist Islamic state.
And let the ulamas reflect if they are part of the problem for the social ills among the Malays?
Amen.
(The views expressed are those of the contributor)
====================================================================
By Yin
Letters from Ward 5, Tanjong Rambutan
Institutionalized Islam and Political Islam are creations of the Malay/Muslim elite to maintain power by controlling malays through an education system designed to dumb them down. Then through the religious classes/schools, further entrench the suppression. Now Malays don’t even know what is right or wrong, good or bad, just what the ulamas and politicians tell them. Even when it is happening in front of their eyes, they are blind to it. They will however react when inflamed by their ulamas and politicians. Sharia law is created by local politicians to keep malays in line. The ordinary malays are not aware that these sharia laws don’t apply to certain categories of muslim elite.. Non Muslims applying for a ‘halal’ licence have to satisfy a whole long list of ‘have to do’ things. One of them is the requirement to supply ‘alkaline water’! The reason for all this ridiculous requirements? You can buy your way out! So sharia laws are not for the purpose of holiness but an opportunity to be corrupt.
I remember sometime in the 70s, a report on the “malay dilemma” was submitted in an UMNO general assembly and read out to the delegates. The author/s were female academics. It dealt with the issues mentioned above. The response was very heated and anger was directed against the authors. Needless to say the report was suppressed never to see the light of day again. This was followed some time later by Dr M’s own “Malay Dilemma”, a lopsided pseudo science analysis of malay problems which completely missed the target(on purpose). It was more acceptable to the Malay masses because it avoided the real issues and allowed them to continue with the NEP and ketuanan issues. Malays think he has a great intellect. Later Bakri Musa came out with his own “Malay Dilemma revisited” which in
essence also dealt with the issues as mentioned in the above article. He has admitted he will never be allowed to come back to Malaysia, a country he was born in, grew up, worked here and would like to come back to serve here. All because he hit the nail very hard on the head. The Malay political/religious warlords have black listed him. So the sore festers on and on. Dr M is keeping Zakir Naik for his ulterior purposes. This demonic preacher is spreading his tentacles through videos and DVDs while lying very low in this country. This will lead to international repercussions later. Malaysia will become an exporter of Islamic intolerance. Sad day for this country. Now Dr M is in Peking to support China in its BRI. See how he is grinning from ear to ear. Like Najib, cash(or money) is king. Now Dr M’s cronies are all lining up to receive his goodies to be dished out in the years to come. There is no difference between these two. Money talks. Dangle the money and everything will be OK.
Both are the living examples of money talks and bull shit walks. even the next PM will not take a different path. If only the old man do realize his past administration which is basically a Malaysian version of apartheid disguise thru ‘ his Malay dilema print are now haunting the nation not to move forward. Those early days in the guise of Malays economic woes, he systematically plunge the nation thru’ his privatisation program just to fulfill his plans and also self enriching, thus create a new scenerio of have and have nots in the Malays race. Till today he is still bitching around that the Malay race are still far behind. The 30 % target of Malay race to be on equal par with the nons will never be attainable. Why ???? Malay populations birth rate are like rats ( do not mean to be offensive but a true analogy of birth rate propagation ) couple with foreign Saudara into the pot are just keeping the percentage too far away to be achieved. They know that the rich Malays are growing by leaps and bounds but it is never for them to use it as a barometer in measurement of wealh success. So in reality the questions that is a begging for answer is how did islam comes into play of the Malay race in their social economic activities. The answer is truly obvious in the above MM piece of write up.
A well written piece and truthfully it leaves mo room to dispute. Can Malaysia move forward?? With 61 years of past Umno rule, Islam has been “concocted” into the administration as a tool to “bonsified” ( a term used by Hisham Rais ) the Malay race. It is no more just a religion. Expecting it to be spiritually uplifting can only be in thoughts as the whole religion has been transformed into a Political Islam where no intellectual discourse are accepted. Religious clerics with the so called Mullahs and the Muftis are clearly authoritative in dispensing their command in a single flow of communication. Theirs is the final say and strangely we have head of Islam in every state is the Royal Ruler himself. Rakyat are at loss in such set up. Kelantan vices are the highest where we have the largest practises of Hadi version of Islam. What more brazen truth do we need further ???