.

.

Extremist views chipping away at the Malaysia I know

By Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi Tuesday, 12 Nov 2019

WHEN I’m asked whether Malaysia will exist in the next decade or so, my answer is that we will see a Semenanjung Tanah Melayu 2.0 and the real Malaysia will be Sabah and Sarawak. Peninsular Malaysia is a “gone case”.

However, I turn my political chessboard and remix my ideological Islamic cake mixture, it all ends up with Muslim conservatism-extremism.

If we want to save Malaysia, we really need to move Putrajaya to “Sabahjaya” and look upon politicians like Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal as serious contenders for the post of prime minister.

I see a bleak future for Malaysia if it is left to narrow-minded public university academia, arrogant and bigoted muftis, and supposedly moderate NGOs that are fast becoming conservative and extremist.

In this article, I would like to deal with the Umno-PAS favourite fear-mongering tactic of raising the spectre of Christianisation. It is also the favourite topic of Malay NGOs and Malay academics who seek to become professors via taking the easy way of “defending” the Malays.

My intention in writing about my “upbringing” with Christianity is simply to forge closer ties with our brethren of faith of which the Quran contains many verses about belief in the previous books or teachings and honouring Mary as well as Jesus or Isa.

Prophet Muhammad himself had several discussions and cordial conversations with Christians in his mosque. He once ordered over 100 Muslims to migrate to Yemen to be under a just king who was a pious Christian.

Some among the Malay middle class do not read the Quran or the books of the Sirah or life of the Prophet, and depend on information from the ustaz and WhatsApp posts.

My first contact with Christianity was when I was in St Mark’s Primary School in Butterworth. Once I could read in English, I began enjoying the Dandy and Beano comics I found in my brother’s room.

Later on, I discovered a second-hand book shop on the five-foot way close to the Cathay Cinema in Butterworth, where I bought up in glee comics such as Wheezer, Beezer, Dandy, Beano and Disney titles. I got 20 sen a day for my pocket money and most of it was spent on used comics that cost 10 sen a piece.

Through the comics, I was exposed to pictures of Christmas trees and presents, Christmas food and activities like caroling. I also got the idea that Easter was about searching for eggs and more food.

None of these comics talked about Jesus or Christianity but they had references to rituals and activities related to that religion. In the St Mark’s Primary School library, I came across Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck magazines that had the same references.

My first real exposure to Christianity was in Standard Three, when I started reading a series of hardbound books called Bedtime Stories. They had stories of children finding miraculous things in everyday life. For the first time, I came across the name Jesus. The images in the books showed a Caucasian man with long hair and a thin, frail body.

I loved the stories of goodness, kindness and faith. I used to borrow these books and read them before I went to bed in a 100sq ft room in the police barracks that I shared with four siblings and my mother.

When I was in Standard Five, my mother took me to buy presents because of my excellent school results. We went to a bookstore in Taiping and got two Enid Blyton books that had been translated into Malay. Their original titles were The Ring O’ Bells Mystery and The River of Adventure.

It was funny reading these books in Malay as the characters had dogs, a parrot and a monkey as pets! Because of the characters in these storybooks, I never had a dislike for dogs, unlike many Malays.

Reading more than 200 Enid Blyton books within two years in secondary school exposed me to Christmases, Thanksgivings and… dogs!
The most impactful stories that formed my values of humanity were from the three school-based series of books: The Naughtiest Girl, St Clare’s and Malory Towers.

Ok, ok, stop laughing… Yes, they were girl’s stories! Why was a boy reading them? Well, most of my education construct and values actually came from these school stories. Blyton never used the name Jesus in any of the teen books I read but I know the characters all came from Christian culture as there were references to going to church.

When I went to the United States, I embarked on a self-study of religions and read many books on the sayings of Buddha, the four New Testaments of the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching. I also read books by Muslims like Abul a’la Maududi, Sayyid Qutb and Ali Shariati.

Before I answered the call for Islamic Reformation, I had a grounding in other faiths. My reading has convinced me of the universality of all faiths. And as a Muslim, Islam to me was an open and tolerant religion based on my reading of the five books of the hadith and three Quranic interpretations.

Thus, I have no problems with dogs, going to a church for tea with the Christian community, sitting and eating with those of other faiths, and even listening to sermons and lectures of others about their religions.

It boggles my mind that some Muslims are frightened of crosses, words of Allah in Malay, and Christian sermons preaching simple and universal values expounded by Jesus. That many of those shouting Christianisation are academics, triples the boggling of my mind.

This is why I say Peninsular Malaysia is a “gone case”. It has stage-four cancer of Malays being frightened by their own ignorance and huge egos. I dread the day when Dandy, Beano, Wheezer, Beezer, Enid Blyton books and dogs will be declared haram and detrimental to the faith of Islam and the position of the Malays.

Oh, what a pathetic future this way comes!

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

.