Snakes in our hearts

 

Before we reprimand others for being insensitive, perhaps we should first look at ourselves, whether we ourselves have been oversensitive 

Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily 

There was this story.

One day, Du Xuan went to his friend's house, and when his friend invited him for a drink, he felt he saw a little snake inside the cup when he was lifting it.

In order not to disappoint his host, he nevertheless finished his drink.

After he reached home, he almost went mad, his head fully occupied by the shadow of snake, thinking he could have swallowed the reptile into his stomach.

He later had the feeling the snake in his head actually turned into a real snake that was nibbling his brain mouth by mouth, his brain soon hollowed.

He was later rushed to Harvard Medical School for brain anatomy and was found to have been infected with herpes zoster.

Just a joke! The second half was my own fabrication.

The actual story is: the little snake Du Xuan saw in his cup was actually the reflection of the bow hung on the wall.

What I was trying to say is that the shadow of the snake continues to linger around the heads of many. From Melissa's Facebook slander of the King, Alvin and Vivian's bah kut teh fiasco, the "Saya Hina Agama Islam" graffiti on the body of abducted man, lunch at school changing room, to "balik Cina, balik India" scandal, religious and ethnic controversies are like hundreds and thousands of little snakes that get entwined inside our heads.

Then we have the "1 Hari Di Hari Raya" YouTube clip.

In the video clip, a woman spreads the dog food on table after washing the dogs' feet, and the words "Raikanlah Aidilfitri Bersama-sama" appear on the screen after the canines have grabbed their feed.

And the "little snakes" again possess the bodies of the viewers.

On the following day, Muhyiddin issued a statement, saying no Muslims had made fun of other religions such as Christianity or Hinduism, but Islam was repeatedly humiliated by non-Muslims.

The DPM also hit out at some people for thinking that Muslims were weak and that others could walk all over them.

The question is, the dog walker in the video clip is not a non-Muslim, but a Muslim lady.

She is a dog trainer who loves the animals so much that she would even treat them as equals and celebrate buka puasa with them.

The video was made and uploaded three years ago although it only started to steal public attention as recently as several days back.

I am in no position to conclude whether what Chetz Yusof did is sacrilegious. The point is, before people get to see the real thing, many have had the presumption that it is another non-Muslim that has attempted to outrage the sanctity of Islam.

Which is not a good thing. In a religiously sensitive country like ours, people must remain highly sensitive in handling other religions. Similarly, before we reprimand others for being insensitive, perhaps we should first look at ourselves, whether we ourselves have been oversensitive..

Being oversensitive doesn't augur well for sound judgement and more accommodation, creating unnecessary ill-feeling.

Moreover, we don't always have to draw a distinct line whenever it comes to religion. In Malaysia, political leaders must learn to put the nation above their respective communities, trying to explore what we share in common instead of highlighting our differences and dissimilarities.