The slap is about power, not hypocrisy

 

“I was just eating normally and the uncle asked if I am Chinese or not. I said yes, because that’s a normal question.” - Elijah

This young non-Muslim kid was slapped, and I read all these articles about how this is a hypocritical act considering this is a holy month of fasting.

Never mind that this act happens in a country where the religious bureaucracy and the state make it mandatory for believers to fast. Where shops are closed for the fasting month. Where school canteens operating for non-Muslim students become fodder for the political and religious class.

Not to mention this is a country where non-Muslims are banned from using certain words and demonised by religious preachers for their religious beliefs. Where the religious class and political operatives always tell non-Muslims to stay clear of religious issues even if they trespass onto their rights as citizens of this country.

When this man slapped this kid, it was not about religious hypocrisy. This is not about how someone misused religion. This is about how ideas of superiority infect the social interaction of the everyday rakyat.

This is about bully-boy tactics that are internalised and then unleashed on people who couldn’t defend themselves except to let the world know of their victimisation.

A demonstration of brute force

I read all these pieces which talk about the beauty of religion and how the religion or religions do not advocate anything like this, which is objectively wrong because any kind of religious dogma or holy texts are littered with ideas of power and subjugation.

Furthermore, these people write as if this country is a model of religious acceptance - I despise the word tolerance - which is complete horse manure.

Forcing non-believers to submit to your authority, especially if they hold religious beliefs of their own or do not wish to be bound by any religious dogma, demonstrates power on a fundamental level.

It is brute force, a demonstration that non-Muslim beliefs are inconsequential and that they are bound to religious law even if they choose not to believe.

They will be forced to acknowledge that even if they do not submit, they are not beyond religious law and will suffer the consequences of deviations from such religious observances.

To put it simply, this is what I have been writing about ever since I claimed that religious extremism is the existential threat facing our country at the moment.

The nature of the religious juggernaut is submission. Submission of will, but more importantly, sweeping away all dissent until all that is left are people who for whatever reasons submit to the religious authority of the state.

We are not equal

Why does the kid think this is a normal thing to ask? Because he understands when it comes to race and religion, there is a disparity in treatment.

Sure he may not articulate it in that way and I am sure he may not find it oppressive because he understands that ethnicity means that different social rules apply. So at first, he was compliant, and his compliance was met with violence.

The elderly man who is accused of slapping a non-Muslim eating at a Family Mart outlet in Angsana, Johor

This was not about religion. This was about power. Now, obviously, this old cretin does not have much power. Why did this old man slap this young kid?  Why did he ask what ethnicity this kid was?

Because this old cretin understands that we are all not equal citizens. He understands that by virtue of his ethnicity, this kid is not equal in terms of how the state views the two of them. He reads about how preachers in this country insult and mock other religions and people and they get away with it.

So, he knows confronting this kid is normal. He reads the news. He understands that when it comes to the religion of the state, whatever he does is justified on religious grounds.

The dark truth

What people do not want to talk about is how this old cretin slapping this kid is like public caning. Indeed, what he did was publically assault this kid much the same way how the religion of the state makes public caning part of the religious law in this country.

Keep in mind that public religious whipping has already been normalised in this country, with advocates always attempting to broaden its scope.

And if you think that this kind of zealotry is confined to the echelons of power in the religious class, read what some folks said when PAS tried to impose public caning on those who committed adultery, a couple of years ago.

Here is what a businessperson said in relation to what PAS is attempting to do: “Shahmimi Abdul Aziz, 30, was also supportive of public caning for zina (adultery) offenders, adding that it should be carried out nationwide. ‘Every state should implement it. Enforcement should also be done on the offenders’ non-Muslim partners; the punishment must be fair,’ Shahmimi noted.”

Therein lies the dark truth. Not only are non-Muslims dealing with a religious hegemon, but we are also dealing with a group-think that endorses the idea of non-Muslim subjugation to religious dogma.

All that remains to be seen is will the state enable such behaviour or sanction it. The former, of course, would just be another slap on the collective faces of non-Muslims in the country.

The slap is a petty display of religious power but carries the same symbolic weight as the power that comes with building a mosque on the site of a demolished temple. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.