Interfaith: Why Muslims need it the most

By admin-s On Jul 5, 2016

This courtesy is sadly not reciprocated by Muslims towards Christians in Malaysia. Even when it is Christians extending gestures of friendship and muhibbah, Muslims end up making police reports against them.

Farouk A Peru, The Malay Mail Online

We have reached a point in our national situation where truth and falsehood have traded places. When a person voices his protest against corruption in the government, it is he who becomes the criminal. When people try to build the spirit of muhibbah among the Rakyat, police reports are made against them and they feel compelled to cancel their plans altogether. It is now a crime to do good things.

The initiative of interfaith is something common in Western societies. I have been involved in them for years now and find the experience most enriching.

In the West, obviously the Christians are the ones in the majority. They have the most representation due to the number of denominations and the way these denominations co-operate is astounding.

Despite their majority, they are very magnanimous towards other religions, especially Muslims. I say “especially” because Muslims have the most “special needs”, like serving halal food, no alcohol and prayer spaces. Even so, they are quite accommodated.

I speak of the buka puasa event organised by the Church of Assumption. According to the piece by Lyana Khairuddin, they took great pains to ensure their Muslim brethren were comfortable. The food was halal, Christian paraphernalia were removed (though I don’t see why they should be… they don’t make me feel uncomfortable at all).

They even provided Muslims with prayer mats and plastic sandals for their ablutions before prayer. The thoughtfulness of it all really moved me.

Yet, their salaam (greeting or gesture of peace) was spat at by some Muslims. A police report was allegedly made against them. As the rumours from social media tells us, apparently it was thought that the Muslims would be fed holy water and they would be converted to Christianity!

This is the same thing that happened to Nor Aisha Bukhari and Lina Joy, apparently. They drank holy water and were converted to Christianity. The absurdity of this claim simply robs me of words. What can one say to such a ludicrous and unintelligent opinion?

Interfaith activities are needed now more than ever. Muslims are not educated about Islam in schools for 11 years. Rather, they are miseducated. They are fed the most folkloric, anachronistic, narrow-minded form of Islam there is.

I can speak of this confidently because I was a product of this system. We were told about the kapirs (colloquial Malay for infidels) and how we must bring them to Islam. Our own Islam is never called into question. How can they be when questions are not tolerated? We may become kapirs ourselves!