Religion of Peace and Understanding?
An Ustaz could say that Muslims who allow non-Muslims to raise their children are worse than animals, because “even animals do not let other species raise their young”. Get that? This is Islamic Apartheid. Non-Muslims are considered as a different inferior species altogether compared to Muslims.
By Donkey Kong
Harian Metro published this piece:
http://www.hmetro.com.my/myMetro/articles/Haiwanlebihbaik/Article/index_html
KUALA LUMPUR: “Lebih kejam daripada haiwan,” tegas penceramah bebas Ustaz Hassan Mahmud Al-Hafiz ketika mengulas mengenai tindakan ibu bapa yang sanggup menggadai akidah mereka dengan menyerahkan anaknya kepada keluarga angkat bukan beragama Islam.
Menurut Hassan, tindakan itu lebih kejam daripada haiwan kerana haiwan contohnya kucing tidak akan sanggup menyerahkan anaknya kepada spesies lain.
“Saya hairan kenapa ibu bapa sanggup menyerahkan anak mereka kepada keluarga bukan Islam.
“Walhal dalam hukum Islam, ibu bapa wajib memberi perlindungan dari segi keselamatan, tempat tinggal dan bimbingan agama kepada anak mereka walau dalam kesempitan hidup sekalipun. Ia juga membuktikan tabiat haiwan lebih baik daripada ibu bapa terbabit,” katanya ketika dihubungi Harian Metro, semalam.
Harian Metro minggu lalu melaporkan tindakan sepasang ibu bapa sanggup menyerahkan anak perempuan mereka yang hanya mahu dikenali sebagai Suria kepada keluarga bukan Islam sejak bayi lagi.
Suria mengakui, sepanjang dibesarkan oleh keluarga angkat terbabit dia didedahkan cara hidup Kristian malah pernah menjadi penyampai kandungan kitab Injil dan pastor di gereja.
Suria berkata dia hanya mengenali Islam apabila datang ke ibu negara Mei tahun lalu selepas mengenali seorang pemuda yang kemudian mengahwininya sebelum kembali memeluk agama Islam pada awal Disember lalu.
Dia kini mempelajari asas ajaran Islam seperti saudara baru lain, malah pada mula sangat kekok untuk bergaul dan berdamping dalam masyarakat Islam.
Hassan berkata, tindakan ibu bapa terbabit juga seolah-olah menunjukkan anaknya itu jalan ke neraka sedangkan mereka meneruskan kehidupan sebagai pasangan beragama Islam.
Sikap lepas tangan ibu bapa sebegitu amat ditegah dalam ajaran dan sunnah Rasulullah sambil menyifatkan tindakan itu sebagai merugikan masyarakat Islam sendiri.
“Jangan jadikan kesempitan hidup sebagai alasan untuk lepas tangan serta menyerahkan anak kepada keluarga bukan Islam kerana saya percaya ibu bapa terbabit mempunyai banyak pilihan lain sebelum membuat tindakan di luar akidah berkenaan,” katanya.
Justeru, beliau berharap perkara sebegini tidak dipandang ringan dan wajar diberikan perhatian oleh pihak yang berwajib termasuklah jabatan agama Islam negeri.
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Time and again, Muslims assure us that the extremists within their ranks are but a slim percentage, and that Islam doesn’t teach them to disrespect other religions. With the church bombings, we are reassured by the authorities and Muslim figures that these terrorists were acting against Islam, and that Islam doesn’t condone violence against Christians.
But is it really true that all that sugar-coating reflects majority opinion? Do Muslims really respect other faiths, and does Islam really indoctrinate its votaries with notions of peace, understanding and equality?
Take a look at the article above. An Ustaz could say that Muslims who allow non-Muslims to raise their children are worse than animals, because “even animals do not let other species raise their young”. Get that? This is Islamic Apartheid. Non-Muslims are considered as a different inferior species altogether compared to Muslims.
The article further likens the Muslim parents who allowed Christians to raise their child to be “showing their child the road to Hell”. This is what they’re bluntly saying. Granted, other Abrahamic faiths have the same concept as well, but for an Ustaz to declare that Christianity is the road to Hell, that’s priceless. Religion of peace and understanding indeed.
The fact is that Muslims in Malaysia constantly demonizes Christianity. From conspiracy theories about apostasy campaigns and “holy water”, to constant harping about how Christians are the enemies of Islam (thanks to Islamic eschatology that clearly states the cross will be broken during the end-times). It’s not hard to see how the initial church attacks led to a phenomenon that took a life of its own, with other sporadic attacks occurring elsewhere in Malaysia. There has always been an indoctrination of hate against the Christians among the Muslims. I remember back in primary school itself, as soon as my classmates were enrolled in the “Pendidikan Agama” classes, they started being radicalized. They would come back from those lessons telling the Chinese and Indians “Your gods are false”, “You worship statues” and other such things, and composing rhymes and “religious hymns” about defeating the “false religion” of Christianity. I’m not joking. These are children who are not more than 7 or 8 years old, and they’ve already been indoctrinated to hate others.
Muslims also have this constant phobia that Islam is under attack. Every single move by Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus are read as potential attacks to Islam. Muslims then create conspiracy theories about how the Jews want to destroy the Dome of the Rock, or how Christians want to enslave the whole world under a Christian theocracy. Tabloids in Muslims countries carry sensationalized stories about how Muslims that are haunted by apparitions of demons (in the form of the Buddha or Hindu gods in the case of Malaysia’s “Mastika” and the like) managed to banish them with Quranic verses, and how this should serve as a lesson for Muslims not to associate with non-Muslims lest they get haunted by these demonic deities.
On the other hand, in an apparent reflex to overcompensate, Muslims have been overzealous in “defending Islam”. As a response to conspiracy theories of a global Christian theocracy (that is created by Muslims themselves), Muslim groups such as Hizbut Tahrir advocate a global Islamic caliphate. Wherever Muslims are, they demand to have their Syariah law and the right to live differently than other citizens, all in the name of “defending Islam” from a perceived concerted effort by the “enemies of Islam” to stifle the practice and spread of Islam. The zealousness in “defending Islam” resulted in Muslim communities in Western countries being largely separatist communities. From the banlieues of France to the Somali and Moroccan communities across Scandinavia, these Muslims not only fail to be a seamless part of the host country, they have essentially trampled on others’ freedoms and the host country’s laws. In Muslims-majority countries, this zealousness in “defending Islam” has left minority communities with little rights and not much voice. The rights of the minorities are often bulldozed aside as Islam is the priority. We end up with a paradox – Muslims’ claim that they’re victims of others oppression end up being the oppressors themselves. Muslims’ claim that there’s a global effort to suppress Islam end up with Muslims suppressing other faiths in the face of non-existent threats and conspiracies.
If Muslims are serious about joining the world community and not be seen as a backward community that is currently stuck in its Middle Ages (it is the 15th Muslim century after all), the Muslims have got to face the present-day reality of a small world with globalized economics and culture. All that insulation that they put around themselves and all the bogeymen that they create for themselves only betray their intrinsic absence of confidence and self-esteem. Worse still, it has resulted in Muslims being the main ingredient in sectarian conflicts all around the globe: Muslims vs the Swiss, Muslims vs the French, Muslims vs the Dutch, Muslims vs Christians, Muslims vs Israel and Jews, Muslims vs Hindus. Perhaps it is best for Islam to undergo its own period of questioning and revolution like what Martin Luther did to the church. A religion that is strong and true does not fear questioning and does not need insulation. Believers who are confident do not need conspiracy theories and do not need to resort to violence at every turn.
Stop thinking of yourselves as victims when you’re not. Stop thinking that Islam is under attack when it’s not. Above all, stop thinking of yourselves as superior human beings and others as lesser species. Maybe then will the self-proclamation of Islam as a religion of peace starts to gain some credibility rather than the hot air that it is now.
