“Gov’t doesn’t provide land to build mosques nor land for Muslim cemeteries”, non-Muslims told

 

IN the wake of the so-called illegal temple polemic whereby both sides of the divide become more aware of each other’s rights, one Muslim netizen has come forward to clear the misperception of non-Muslims when it comes to construction of mosques, provision of burial ground and various Muslims’ societal obligations.

On this note, Threads user arluisnfx wants all non-Muslim Malaysians to restrain themselves from “talking without knowing the facts” the following:

• The government DOES NOT PAY for Muslims to go Hajj.
• The government DOES NOT FUND iftar at mosques.
• The government DOES NOT GIVE waqf land to build mosques.
• The government DOES NOT PROVIDE land for Muslim cemeteries.
• The government DOES NOT FUND zakat (tithe).

“All of this comes from Muslims ourselves. Our own money, our own donations, our own charity. So stop saying everything is paid by the government,” he somehow fumed.

“And stop throwing around the word LAZY MALAY just because you do not understand a lifestyle that is not obsessed with money. We don’t live just to chase money to take into the grave.”

While needless to say many Muslims would welcome such clarifications, a commenter pointedly highlighted the oft-talked about claim in the non-Muslim circle that “taxpayers’ money are mostly collected from the non-Malays”.

“You pay zakat but you don’t pay taxes,” lamented the presumably non-Malay netizen. “You used other taxpayers’ money for many of you are funded by the government, eg thru JPA (Public Service Department) to study overseas.”

Bailing out Tabung Haji

To this, the poster clarified that Malay Muslims pay both zakat and taxes, thus if the commenter is still unsatisfied, he can “go ahead and show proof that this so-called 30% minority is the (country’s) biggest taxpayers “.

“Or is the other 70% just lounging around doing nothing ,” jibed arluisnfx. “You probably don’t even realise that government staff (mostly Malays) also pay taxes, right? And that’s not even counting people in the private sector. Bro, your math isn’t matching.”

Added the Threads user: “Also, it’s not just the zakat before Raya that Muslims have to pay. Other types of zakat as well like zakat pertanian, ternakan (agricultural, cattle tithes), gold, wealth, etc but we never complain about it. If you tahu, you mesti nangis lo (literally, “You’ll cry if you know”).”

Interestingly, another non-Muslim commenter – while concurring with the poster – cannot help fathoming out as to why the government has to bail out Tabung Haji with a RM19.9 bil rescue package “when money got swindled by its keepers”.

This was when one Muslim netizen chipped in with her two sen worth that “while the money belongs to us (citizens who deposited our money in our Tabung Haji account), the Pilgrims’ Fund Board is still government-owned”.

“They (the government) are legally bound to protect us under the Tabung Haji Act 1995,” she explained.

“Our savings are fully protected by Section 24 of the Tabung Haji Act 1995 which means the government is the guarantor by law. To keep things even tighter, TH is (now) placed under BNM’s (Bank Negara Malaysia) oversight.” –  Focus Malaysia