Why shouldn't Virgin Mary appear in 'Muslim Malaysia': DON'T INSULT THE CHRISTIANS!

If we are going to get into trading insults petty or otherwise over our respective faiths, there’s plenty of ammunition to go around if we ignore deeply personal matters of the heart and personal experience. Those who stay in glass houses should not throw stones.

All of us would no doubt remember that Malaysian mariner Azhar Mansor, who sailed around the world not so long ago, is no longer in the country. He’s no longer hailed as the great hero of bangsa, agama, negara, and that he’s no longer regarded as a Towering Malay, whatever that means. He has reportedly moved to Australia to practise his Christian faith which he accepted “after seeing Jesus Christ moving across the water towards him and saving his boat from sinking and certain death”.

Azhar is not alone.

Many other Muslims have fled Malaysia for lack of the freedom of worship enshrined in the Constitution.

Freedom of worship issue will also dominate General Elections

No doubt there are thousands of other Muslims who are practising Christianity and other faiths secretly in Malaysia like the first Christians in pagan Rome which fed believers to the lions to entertain the masses. This is a potent vote bank which Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar is trying to tap for the “freedom of worship” issue.

If “gullibility” is the issue, it works both ways.

So, it’s not the done thing to provoke Christians as being gullible or whatever over the Marian apparition at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC).

Granted that the apparition will severely test the respective faiths of non-Christians, but is that any reason to dive into the Christians? No amount of insults will deter the Christians from their faith. If anything, the apparition will strengthen their faith even more and draw back the wayward to “the word of God in the Bible”.

Some critics are wondering why the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) should appear in Malaysia, “knowing full well that it’s a Muslim country”.

This is rich!

For starters, it implies that a Muslim saint or some long deceased religious figure from that faith should have put in an appearance at the SJMC instead of BVM. In that case, is it the fault of the Christians that such a phenomenon did not take place and instead they have the mother of their son of God, Jesus, putting in an appearance instead “by default”?

Malaysian landmass is overwhelmingly Christian

For another, the “Muslim country” theory ignores the stark reality that the great majority of the Malaysian landmass is Christian if we take Sabah and Sarawak into account.

The Orang Asal in both Nations in Malaysia is overwhelmingly Christian.

The Batu Sumpah in Keningau, one of the constitutional documents which make up the unwritten and long ignored Constitution of Malaysia, reflects this reality in a three-point declaration. The pertinent point in the Oath Stone reads that Sabah would have no religion.

The 20 Points in Sabah and the 18 Points in Sarawak, again constitutional documents, read among others that both nations would not have a religion. That does not mean that they are heathens, godless creatures, but more that they respect all faiths too much to place any including theirs above another. Also, there’s the little matter of Christianity swearing by separation of Church and state – read secularism – ever since Jesus said: “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

This is why there isn’t even one Christian state in the world. This only proves that recent accusations by mad mullahs that members of the Christian faith in Malaysia are planning to establish their first state in the world couldn’t be further from the truth.

It was the Christians after all, the Serbs and Croats in Bosnia, who fought a tragic genocidal war to dismantle the establishment of the first Islamic state in Europe. By the Dayton Peace Accord of 1995, Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina have expressly sworn never again to try to establish an Islamic state in the country. It was the defection of the Roman Catholic Croats to the Bosnian Muslim side that eventually prevented the total annihilation of the latter at the hands of the murderous orthodox Christian Serbs of Bosnia who were on the rampage.

Secularism is the struggle 

If Christians can be against the establishment of a Christian state, there’s no reason why they should accept the establishment of an Islamic state, whether in Malaysia or elsewhere. Those who forget the lessons of history -- George Santayana – are condemned to repeat history.

Likewise, if Muslims can push for the establishment of an Islamic state, there’s no reason why others cannot likewise push for the establishment of a Christian, Bahai, Jewish, Sikh or Buddhist state. Whether they succeed or otherwise remain to be seen. It was Indira Gandhi who paid with her life when she crushed the movement for a Sikh state – Khalistan – in India. She stormed the Golden Temple of the Sikhs in Amritsar to crush the Khalistanis. The rest is history.

The bottomline is that the concept of gullibility is best explored in politics rather than in religion. There are too many things that we don’t know about who we are, why are we here, why are we born, why do we die and where do we go after death if not to the place we were before we were born.

Gullibility is a concept best explored in politics.

Time to say ‘Enough is Enough’ to BN and move on

Patently, Christians are not so gullible as to accept an Islamic state in Malaysia or the introduction of the Hudud – so-called divine law – in our criminal legal system.

However, they continue to be gullible if they root for the ruling Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) at the forthcoming 13th General Election.

It’s time for Christians to take a stand and say that “Enough is Enough!”

The question of Christians becoming victims and being persecuted in the aftermath of the election results, as in so many other countries, does not arise if they eschew party politics and the politics of coalitions and instead judge incumbents and other candidates on their merits.

Those incumbents who have failed to perform should be voted out.

Those incumbents who have been in office three terms or more should also be voted out even if they have performed. Their punishment should be for hogging the seat instead of giving an opportunity to others to serve the country.

There’s also a case for putting more Christian independents in Parliament and the state assemblies to keep a check on the Islamic state/Hudud movement.

This is why politicizing religion is so dangerous. Governance of a country and its administrative matters get clouded by tussling over not only who but 'what faith' gets appointed or elected to positions of power!

Malaysia Chronicle