Who had insulted Islam?

In Malaysiakini news article on the abandoned forum on ‘Conversion to Islam’, titled Bar Council's forum: More shelling for police, protesters we are informed that 12 NGOs and (amazingly) the MCA including Ong KT came out to condemn the bully-boy tactics of some Muslim protestors a la Apcet II as well as the all-too-ready capitulation of the police to those thugs.

One Malaysiakini reader was heard to say that no doubt the police would have acted differently if those hooligan protestors were Hindraf members or non-Muslims.

Rare would be the Muslim politicians who dared to support the forum. Not even the world’s greatest deformasi leader attempted to peek out of the turtle shell he has suddenly hidden within.

On the other hand his Kulim Wonder, Zulkifli Noordin, according to Malaysiakini, were among those entering the auditorium to disrupt the forum, and had also called on the already infuriated crowd to storm the building should the forum continue. It would seem that someone in PKR had to wave the flag!

Such has been and will be the emotion that some Muslims feel about any form of discussions on inter-faith relationship that they would pre-empt any such discussions by launching aggressive actions to disrupt, derail and discourage its eventuating.

So disgraceful had been the behaviour of those thuggish protestors that Malaysiakini tells us even Pergerakan Progresif Mahasiswa Islam (Promis) and Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas (Jerit) condemned the aggressive nature of the demonstration for not even bothering to find out whether the forum would in fact be insulting Islam.

A spokesman for Promis said: “The use of abusive language, aggression and threats to halt the forum are un-Islamic, undemocratic and goes against the principles of Islam. We also condemn the act of passing judgment on the forum based on assumptions only.”

kaytee’s take is that ethno-centric interests were more prominent than Islamic piety, where abuses degenerated to ‘babi’ and ‘balik China’. Those racist remarks were an affront to the dignity of Islam but the so-called Muslim perpetrators didn’t give a shit, did they?

Oh no, not when the most important by-election in Malaysia for the last 50 years is just around the corner.

Permatang Pauh!

UMNO leaders said the forum would be insensitive and thus wasn't favoured. Anwar said while he’s liberal, he too (like AAB) wasn't in favour of such a forum - meaning he wasn’t liberal, not with Permatang Pauh in mind – but then that sort of double talk has been precisely what MCA Youth Chief Liow Tiong Lai had described about Anwar, as reported by Malaysiakini in its MCA attack on Anwar draws PKR's ire.

The olde UMNO’s ‘agama, bangsa, dam negara’ have been adopted by UMNO, PKR and PAS in a bid to win the hearts and minds of the heartland.

But the sad part has been that agama dan bangsa have been rolled into one, but with bangsa predominating, as to be expected of the component with base values. To PAS’ credit, the racist sickness seemed to have affected mainly UMNO and PKR thugs.

Yes, currently no UMNO or PKR Malay leader like Anwar would want to touch the issue with a ten foot pole, with probably the sole exception being socialist Dr Syed Husin who was pissed off with Zulkifli Noordin.

Any attempts to hold such a dialogue or forum would be a Sisyphean endeavour. Most Muslims would understandably be suspicious of the non-Muslim motives whilst the non-Muslims would be stressed, frustrated and angry by what they see as a proselytizing Islamic movement encroaching into their lives and rights.

Body snatching in some instances caused by overzealous Islamic officers or the consequences of the sinister motives of certain family members of the deceased who saw personal advantage in having their dead relative ‘become’ a Muslim.

Conversion by one spouse in an already broken marriage, again in a few cases, brought about by similar sinister exploitation of Islam to benefit a specific spouse, have all added to the anger, animosities and anxieties.

Then we mustn't forget the UMNO Education Minister who introduced compulsory (i.e by compulsion) the weekly baca doa in Malaysian schools even for non-Muslim studnets - a disturbing disgusting disgraceful proselytizing pundee policy of deformasi - no doubt to enhance political popularity in an ambitious meteoric career path.

Years ago, a 13 or 14-year old Chinese girl was technically raped and kidnapped by her Malay teacher when they eloped. When the teenager’s parents sought justice in the civil court system to have their 14-year old daughter returned rightfully to their parental care, the civil court judges (all Malay Muslims) let them totally down, abandoning the law and legal precedence.

Who had insulted Islam then? Who had misused and subverted the good name of Islam for their own interests, personal and political? Who had shown the world that a Muslim could rob the cradle with impunity to have a sexual relationship with an underage girl? And I am not talking about Malacca but Kelantan!

While an open forum may not be ideal for our Malaysian mentality as yet, if there was any insult to Islam, I would say thus far it was not perpetuated by non-Muslims.