Not cowed but regretful

By Shahanaaz Habib (NST)

Protesters who wanted to send a political message ended up provoking religious sensitivities. But the act of a small group does not reflect the sentiments of Muslims or Malaysians.

I DON’T regret the protest. We achieved our objective. The temple will be relocated. However, we do regret the cow head incident,” declares a Section 23 resident who was part of the protest group. He shares that residents had acted out of desperation when the Selangor state government purportedly ignored their letters and memoradum voicing the Section 23 Malay residents’ unhappiness and objections to the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Section 19 being relocated to their area.

The anger, he says, was directed not at the Hindus but at the state government – namely Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad, and Batu Tiga assemblyman Rodziah Ismail.

He does not want to go into details about stepping on the cow’s head, but stresses that it was not targetted at the Hindus.

“During the Hari Raya Quran (Haji), when we slaughter the cows as sacrifice, we do step on their heads,” he offers by way of explanation and asked not to be named at the last minute.

One of the organisers of the protest who was responsible for bringing the cow’s head says they had wanted to bring a live cow as a symbol of the stupidity of the state government but they could not afford one.

“We wanted to follow the group that sent a cow a few months back to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in Selangor but a live one costs too much. So we got the cow head instead for RM25,” says the organiser who declined to be named.

He adds that they had also planned to get a biawak (monitor lizard) to symbolise the Selangor state government’s alleged forked-tongued nature but failed to get hold of one.

However, Jemaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) president Zaid Kamaruddin says the more the group tries to explain itself, the more illogical the explanation gets.

He says even though the lot claimed their action is directed against the YBs who are being led by their nose, the cow head episode nevertheless is a “senseless gesture that insults Hindus.”

“It’s okay to protest but we take exception to the cow’s head. Islam and the Quran clearly forbid a Muslim from insulting the religion of others,” he says, citing Chapter 6 (Al-Anam) verse 108 in the Quran which reads: Insult not those who they (disbelievers) worship besides Allah, lest they insult Allah wrongfully without knowledge.

For Zaid, bringing a cow’s head to the protest could not have been spontaneous and had to be planned.

He also dismisses the remark that Muslims step on the cow’s head when slaughtering cattle.

“There is no need to step on the cow. What they are saying is all afterthought. It’s better for the protestors to resolve the issue by admitting that the cow head was a big mistake and that they did not intend to hurt the feelings of other communities. The more they try to explain, the deeper they dig themselves in,” he says.

On Aug 28, a group of 50 Section 23 residents had, after Friday prayers, marched from the state mosque to the state secretariat 300m away to protest the relocation of the Hindu temple.

In the process, the severed head of a cow was produced and some of the overzealous protestors stepped on it. The video of the incident has been posted on Malaysiakini for all to see. Many Muslims have voiced their concern over the incident and dissassociated themselves from it, while a handful have backed the group and even started a donation drive to raise their bail.

Twelve people have been charged with illegal assembly over the Aug 28 protest. Of this, six face additional charges for sedition for bringing, carrying and stepping on the cow’s head.

Persatuan Ulamak Malaysia secretary-general Dr Roslan Mohd Nor says he totally disagreed with the protestors’ actions.

“Islam does not allow you to insult people. Islam preaches tolerance among religions,” he says, pointing out that even during the Prophet’s time, Christians and Jews lived together with the Muslims and were allowed their respective places of worship, socialisation and economic freedom.

“People who have knowledge (of Islam) would never do such a thing and it is the responsibility of those who know to tell those who don’t,” says Dr Roslan.

He adds that animals are respected in Islam and should not be treated with disrespect, and in Islam, the intention is always important.

“Is it directed at the state leaders because they marched to the state secretariat? But if so, why the cow’s head when the state government is led by a Muslim? Or is their anger directed at Hindus, which should explain the cow’s head?”

Like Zaid, Dr Roslan too believes that the view of the 50 or so people does not reflect that of Malaysian Muslims in the country.

Strong reaction

Zaid stresses that the first reaction against the cow head incident came from various groups, including Muslim groups and even the Prime Minister.

“This highlights the fact that theirs is not acceptable behaviour by the majority of Malaysians,” he says, adding that it helped when there was no extreme reaction from the Hindus and that the Malays did not make it worse.

“Generally, Malaysians are sensitive and don’t agree with such a move. Whatever the excuse, what the protestors did was not sensitive,” he says, adding that it was a good thing too that the due process of law against the protestors happened quickly.

In fact some people, including Muslims, were so upset by what happened that they went over to the temple to show compassion and solidarity.

“We refuse to be associated with Muslims who would do such a thing in the name of Islam and then shout Allahu Akbar,” says Egyptian activist Hadil El-Khouly who was with the group of Malaysians who went to the temple.

“If anyone should be embarrassed, it should be them (the protestors), not us. We feel sad about it. It is a shocking thing to violate someone’s sacredness like this. Humiliating and hurting other people’s feelings is bad enough but it is shocking to do it in the name of Islam,” she adds.

Hishammuddin tried to diffuse the situation by pointing out that the Malays too have been subject at times to such insults, citing incidents where a pig’s head was sent to Muslims and Umno.

Zaid says the pig’s head cannot be equated to the cow’s head because the latter is seen as sacred. For him, a better comparison would have been the act of someone tearing up the Quran.

However, Dr Roslan disagrees, saying that sending a pig’s head to Muslims is just as bad as using a cow head to Hindus.

“It is very uncivilised for people to have sent the pig’s head. They sent it not just to Umno but also to a mosque near Universiti Malaya. The police should, with their sophistication, be able to track down the perpetrators,” he says.

He also ticks off the media for not highlighting the pig head issue when it happened.

“Was it an editorial decision not to? If so, is it fair to Muslims that you report on the cow head incident but not the pig head? The Malays condemned it but there was no inkling as to who sent it, so there was nowhere to direct their objections to,” he says.

Suraus torn down

Dr Roslan also stresses that the state government has to be firm and everyone has to build places of worship according to the rules and regulations.

He says suraus and mosque which are not deemed legitimate have been demolished or chained up by the local authorities, as in the case in Bangi and Subang.

He points out that if the local authority, which comprises mostly Muslims, is willing to act against unauthorised mosques, they should also act against unauthorised Hindu temples in Selangor.

“It’s not like we oppose places of worship but there must be rules and regulations,” he says.

The Harakah website carried an interesting letter on the cow head issue from a Malaysian who is in the United States on a three-month working stint.

Nasreel Khalib who is in Illinois says he is shocked and saddened by what the Section 23 protestors did and calls their action extreme.

He questions the rationale of their objections on grounds that they opposed the building of a Hindu temple in a Muslim majority area.

He says in Des Plaines, Illinois, where he is at, there is only a small Muslim community and they are allowed their mosque which is only a few hundred metres away from a Catholic church. And every week, “Mat Salleh” policemen would be near the mosque to direct traffic to facilitate Friday prayers.

During the fasting month and the Terawih prayers at the mosque, these policemen are there until 11.30pm to ensure smooth traffic.

“This has made me a bit confused when I compare it with the situation in Shah Alam. Does this mean that American Christians are better human beings than we Muslims in Malaysia?”

The issue of relocating the 150-year-old Hindu temple is not new. Former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo’s administration had approved a piece of land in Section 18 in 2007 for non-Muslim places of worship, including the Sri Maha Mariamman temple.

The protestors are said to have come from Umno, PAS and PKR – i.e. across the political divide. But this did not stop some in Pakatan from pointing fingers at Umno and accusing them of being behind the protests. Umno too has tried to score points on the issue by blaming the Pakatan state government for “inappropriately” allocating the land for the temple.

Religion is a sensitive issue and political leaders – regardless of which side they are on – should not try to gain political mileage from such incidents.