YOURSAY | ‘Should non-Muslims also place ethnicity and religion before citizenship and nationality?’
'Muslim brotherhood trumps citizenship' - Hadi tells Zakir's detractors
Kural: One should have no doubt that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang does not speak for all Muslims in this country.
There are Muslim Malaysians who do not think controversial preacher Zakir Naik is an enabling factor to promote harmony in multiracial Malaysia.
There is obviously a significant number of Malaysians who think that Zakir is a fugitive citizen of another country who should be made to demonstrate his moral responsibility, given his claim as a faith-based preacher, to face the criminal charges against him and clear his name.
Hadi’s threats, given his present topmost leadership role in a faith-based political party here, should ring serious alarm bells to local law-and-order agencies concerned about incitement of social disquiet by irresponsible elements in society.
Ipohcrite: If Muslim brotherhood trumps citizenship, as Hadi claims, why does Zakir have to flee from India? Surely, his Muslim brothers in India will rally to his side to support him, no?
And while we are on this issue, can Hadi rightly claim that all Muslim Malaysians support his ideology – that Muslim brotherhood trumps citizenship?
Gerard Lourdesamy: So a bad Muslim must be defended, but good citizens must be denigrated? Is this Hadi's own version of Islam? Does Muslim brotherhood permit lying, cheating, stealing and inciting hate?
Ordinarycitizen: How about a Malaysian brotherhood, Hadi? How about standing in solidarity with fellow Malaysians?
You can’t understand this? Then don’t pretend to be a leader and lead Muslims astray.
XED: To Hadi, Islam must not be insulted but it is alright for a Muslim to insult other religions.
Why do so many Muslims leave their abodes of peace in the Muslim world for the decadent non-Muslim countries?
The intolerance shown by those belonging to a religious majority in one country will only serve to promote persecution against them when they are in the minority in another country.
David Dass: Hadi, why question the loyalty of the Chinese and the Indians? Should they also place ethnicity and religion before citizenship and nationality?
There are 800 million Hindus in India. And 1.6 billion Chinese (many of whom are Buddhists). And more than two billion Christians.
Are Zakir and Hadi preaching some kind of coalition of the 'righteous' against the 'unbelievers of the world'?
Firstly, how do you build a nation when you preach such divisive politics? Already millions of Malaysians have left the country.
Secondly, how do Muslims of the world co-exist peacefully with the majority in the world who are non-Muslims?
Already there is a backlash in many countries over the actions of a minority of Muslim extremists and also the interpretations of the Quran that require Muslims to live separately from their countrymen and to view their cultures and religions with hostility.
There are Muslim minorities in many countries and peaceful co-existence is absolutely essential.
It cannot be a situation that where you are the majority, you persecute the minority, but where you are a minority, you accept things as they are but wait for the time when you become the majority.
As some people are quoted as saying, of course, there are fundamental differences of dogma and religious beliefs. That does not mean that we should all hate one another.
The idea that two billion Christians are reading bibles that are false and fraudulent is absolute nonsense. Zakir Naik is one person who claims to be an expert on comparative religion.
There are almost 2,000 Catholic universities in the world. The minimum training period for a Catholic priest is seven years. For Jesuits, it is 15 years and most end up with PhDs. So the idea that Christians at some point in time forged their Bible is utter nonsense.
The Bible has been in the same form for almost 2,000 years. So whilst we may differ in what we believe in, it is not necessary for us to criticise and condemn everybody who is of a different faith from us.
It is only necessary when we pray and worship just to focus on God, and nothing else.
Puzzled: Hadi, does this mean any fugitive the world over who declares him/herself as Muslim can take safe refuge in Malaysia simply because he/she is a Muslim?
Is Malaysia obligated to provide safe haven to those? Why aren't any other so-called Muslim countries step up and offer the same? Their total silence is deafening.
Why only Malaysia has to do this? Are we as a country that gullible? Are we suckers? Or are we so blind and stupid whenever the word "Islam" is uttered?
Roar For Truth: My loyalty is to king and country, not to other foreigners who may share my religion. Hidup Malaysia!
Falcon: What was previously speculated is now confirmed. No media spin, twists, manipulation by mercenary bloggers, the epicentre has spoken.
In your interpretation and version, does it mean you will provide refuge and insulation to alleged terrorists, sleeper cells, closet sympathisers, money launderers, deep state and non-state actors if you perceive them as your religious partners?
Oh, I forgot, you have indeed answered that question very loud and clear.
Quigonbond: What is this Muslim brotherhood? Do they stand for truth? Justice? Fairness? Compassion? Hardly.
It’s a gathering of religious pretenders who twist facts and verses to fit their agenda, have little respect for integrity, does not know peanuts about developing an economy, and increasingly strident in inciting hatred. Ultimately, they want power.
Maybe to them, they have a mission from God, and the end justifies the means, in which case they are fanatics. Fanatics are inherently dangerous because they cannot be reasoned with. They are liable to encourage terrorism.
If the police and our Harapan leaders have any backbone, it is time to turn a new page for Malaysia. You have the power to enact national harmony laws that will root out and punish extremists and inciters.
You must have the courage to do the right thing instead of being ruled purely by electoral considerations.
I just cannot believe that PKR and DAP as moderate parties are led by the nose by a mosquito party called Bersatu, giving in to their whim, increasingly also talking like another Umno.
They should remember non-Malays voted for them too. It’s time to stop taking moderate Malaysians for granted.
Veritas: PAS, Mahathir and Umno want to weaponise Islam now, and this loathsome man Hadi is their agent.
His formulations are no different from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's, except that Mahathir was quite focused on Malay ascendency rather than Islamic ascendency.
The Malay ascendency project has failed due to the poor economic and educational setup in the country, and fierce competition by highly capable cultures in the East Asian region.
So sadly, not many Malays are proud of being Malay, and even now, not very proud to be Malaysians, unlike citizens in ascendant powers like China or Singapore. In fact, it is the non-Malays who are saying that they are proud to be Malaysians.
So we all can understand the turn to Islam as a source of some sort of civilisational pride and greatness for Malay-Muslims.
I don't see any Muslim society that weaponises Islam for politics become successful. Of courses, many Muslims like to point to the glories of Islamic civilisation, as Mahathir and so many Muslims you meet do.
Of course, the early Islamic civilisation had a dynamic very different from today's sorry Muslim societies and the Persian contribution was enormous, but the use of that history is necessary for their feelgood, illusory goals.
But in the interim, Islam is the only source of pride for the Malays, and Zakir, to his credit, knows how to play it up. He uses Islam and not citizenship, supported by Hadi, as the criterion for true belonging in Malaysia.
This formulation questions the whole nation-state framework that the Federal Constitution was built on, but it is a violation that many Muslim-Malay hegemonists are willing to take.
This whole game is not to seek ways to be pious in the deeply religious sense, which we all know is a very personal struggle involving many difficulties and requiring much self-reflection and self-examination.
This project is about mobilising group identities, with all the ugly use of victimhood, ideology, selected history, and group aggression for political power and religious hegemony, pretending of course that it is the path to personal piety.
Many Muslim Malaysians have fallen into this mode of thinking for some time, and Zakir Naik is but the latest, extreme expression of this process. He speaks with much boldness because he knows he is protected by the establishment and a sizeable number of Muslims.
He knows there is a new Malay-Muslim need for the reassurance that their beliefs true, that they belong to the best religion (and are so tolerant), and they would be in a more perfect society if not for the foreign contamination of the Chinese, Indians, the British, Western imperialism, etc.
This is a doomed project but it is not a surprising path in history. Non-Malays stand to lose of course, but so will Malays eventually, although the Malay plutocracy and religious power-holders will benefit, along with the foreign prostitutes who play this game.
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