YOURSAY | ‘A time-out is necessary before they go back to face the reality of their hardships.’
Aries46: I doubt the Malays' excitement with Indian Muslim preacher Zakir Naik's rallies has anything to do with religion per se.
He comes across more like an accomplished entertainer with a rock star-like status and attracts largely Muslim following.
GE14Now!: Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim, quite possibly it’s because Umno (of which you were once part of) took steps to ensure that the majority of that group of people remained intellectually uninterested.
All you have to do is to make people talk religion all the time, and tell them that they cannot challenge you for doing so is taking on the Almighty himself, and you have a subservient, unthinking lot.
That was what you wanted and this is what you got.
LifeFlier: Zaid, most of us understand your frustration, but there is no reason to give up. Don't be distracted by the sheer size of crowd in Zakir's public lectures.
No one has the numbers to show how many there were among this crowd who couldn't care more about embezzlement in 1MDB when the Tabung Haji fund was involved in saving cash-strapped 1MDB. Or who among the Malays aren't aware of former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad's ferocious criticisms of Najib, who aren't aware of GST, who aren't aware of how the cost of living in Malaysia has increased substantially.
Give them a break, a time-out is necessary before they go back to face the reality of their hardships. Like I said before, given the right conditions, malleable brain has enough plasticity to evolve.
Upon the time our fellow Malaysians of Malay ethnic background breaking through this barrier, we will see the Malaysian Malaysia dream comes true.
SteveOh: Well said, Zaid. People who are too heavenly-minded but of no earthly use can sometimes be unbalanced.
They forget that they are still on earth and that God has given them the responsibility of tending the physical earth and living lives pleasing to him and caring for society.
Those who think God is only concerned about religious rites and rituals are ignorant. God is concerned for our total well-being, and corruption and bad governance are not of God but the devil.
Many who appear religious but are unrighteous may unwittingly be doing the will of the devil, who can also be religious as an 'angel of light.'
I'm glad there are Muslims like Zaid who can think straight on the religious issue. His ideas are far more sound than that of Zakir’s, who has been exposed for telling lies and getting his facts all wrong on science, history and religion.
It demonstrates the gullibility of the well-meaning but naive followers of religion.
Anon1: And what about the Malays holding high office in government and the civil service? They too don't understand anything? It's all coming to light now. Thank you, Zaid.
However, please explain how they managed to conjure and execute those complex financial scandals/corruption at every level that have shaken our country since aeons? It seems to me that they are a very intelligent lot to pull heists like that. Were these a different breed?
Kadir Sulong: Most of Zakir’s crowd are Malays who have little knowledge of other religions. These Malays who attend are not well-versed with English as Zakir speaks in English. Malays who are English-educated will not attend these forums.
Moreover, upper-middle class Malays and the elite Malays will not waste their time in this fairy tales. Zakir’s idea is to implant doubts on other religions.
Religion is always about peace, love, brotherhood and to accommodate good values of all other religions. It is never to split society and propagate differences.
Anticonmen: A fundamentalist is one who interprets scripture literally instead of allegorically or metaphorically. The seven-day creation in the Bible or Quran cannot be interpreted literally but allegorically.
When the Bible was written 1,500 years ago, scientific knowledge had not developed yet and the writers would not have been in a position at all then to explain creation as we understand today according to the Big Bang theory, when everything is explained to have emanated from the same source and the creation of our universe took a long time, and in fact, millions of years to even become habitable.
To understand such time span can be challenging to our finite mind. An allegory is a story or phrase or narrative that needs to be understood symbolically in order to convey a deeper, inner, esoteric truth about the universe or a phenomenon.
Hplooi: But back to the Muslim ummah. an authoritative and institutionalised approach to religion will essentially take out the ‘personal’ and spirituality from religion.
This will lead to an 'explosion' of popular expressions; commonly the rise of popular cults and charismatic preachers. The Christian community has gone through the whole history of sociological evolution and probably is still evolving.
Charismatic preachers are currently a major reaction to the established church. Ditto will happen to the Malaysian version of the Muslim ummah...
Anonymous_1371866496: Zaid, what puzzles me is this - Islam teaches good and surely by extension to tell right from wrong and good from evil.
How is it that we have so many of us that do not see what is obviously wrong from right? Murder, theft and assault. Surely these are basic tenets of all religions? -Mkini
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