The double standards of halal or haram

In the course if my life, I've met people of many different religious faiths .... from the really pious to the loosely religious, and they exist in every single religion known to man. There are even varying degrees of atheists ..... from the "I think therefore I am" atheist to the "I don't believe in God but I won't say anything bad about Him - just in case" types. In essence when it comes to human spiritual beliefs, it cuts across the entire spectrum of humankind.

I'm bringing this up because of the recent "haram" money issue in Penang, which state opposition leader Azhar Ibrahim from UMNO/BN, is playing up which caused a lot of distress to some "more pious" Penangites of the Islamic faith. Let me stress that it is not my purpose to question here anyone's sensitivities about what is"haram" or "halal'. As I said above, there are varying degrees of piousness and what may be perfectly legitimate for me may not be acceptable to others in their understanding what their faith requires of them.

Instead I would like to aim my attention at Azhar Ibrahim for knowingly being hypocritical and playing on the fears of others (whom UMNO claims they "bela") for political mileage.

For as long as I can remember and that goes back to the sixties, Malaysia has had some form or other of gambling - horse racing, social welfare lottery, 4D, Sports Toto, etc., now whether this is right or wrong is another question altogether (which the scope of this posting will not cover for now).

Some of which were legacies from our colonial past and some of which were new introductions after independence. All of them were and are still heavily regulated and heavily taxed by the federal government of the day, which in Malaysia's case had been the Alliance and BN government. In both instances, whether Alliance or BN, UMNO to which Azhar Ibrahim belongs is the real power behind the government. And they have been collecting huge amounts of "haram" money in the form of taxes for the treasury.

Over the course of many years, these "haram" money together with "halal" money (those which have not been lost through corruption) had been spent on subsidies and various social programs not to mention the bribes given each time elections comes around. I dare say that not a single Malaysian then and now have benefited in one way or another from "haram" money which the treasury collected.

I dare say that no one today can distinguish what is "haram" or "halal" money spent by the government not that they made any attempts to make that distinction in the first place. The reality is it is just impossible to make such a distinction.

In all those years,did Azhar or for that matter any politician from UMNO, ever once questioned if the federal government was being insensitive to pious Muslims by giving them "haram" money in one form or another? Why bring it up now when it involves the DAP state government of Penang? Why cause such anguish to those whom they claim they represent when they have been doing it for all these years since independence?

To Azhar and the party he represents, they are so bereft of ideas on how to win back the rakyat's support that they will go to all lengths even if it smacks of hypocrisy! Actually hypocrisy is nothing new to them since they think that we are too dumb to see through it.

I don't know about you but I'm not so much irked by the silly antics of UMNO/BN politicians. I mean after all what do you expect of a party whose rank and file comprises of many out for personal gain and hence will do anything to regain or remain in power? That is to be expected otherwise we would not be talking of regime change today.

Being pious or stupid or ignorant is one thing as most can't help themselves when they fall into such categories. But being hypocritical? This is the most evil kind when ordinary folks who don't know better are manipulated to serve a political end!

Whatever religion you may belong to or not, is it not "haram" for us to be taken as fools not once, not twice or thrice but many many many times over? So long as we allow such politicians to remain around, our country will never achieve "halal" status! Time to rid Malaysia of all these "haram" HYPOCRITES!

courtesy of The Middle Ground