Letter to Editor
WELL, well, well, what a surprise – or probably no surprise at all.
Never one to pass up an opportunity to fan the flames of divisive rhetoric, controversial Muslim convert preachers Firdaus Wong Wai Hung and Ridhuan Tee Abdullah have weighed in with their personal brand of hate speech over the proposed Hari Raya open house to be held at the compound of a Penang tokong (temple).
For the uninitiated, the brouhaha involves the Penang Islamic Religious Affairs Department (JHEAIPP) decision to bar temple-linked group Thean Hock Keong Association from staging a Hari Raya open house tomorrow (April 11) at 8pm.
The given reasoning is that Hari Raya Aidilfitri is a Muslim religious celebration, henceforth a non-Muslim religious body should not organise it.
In an incendiary post on Facebook, Firdaus echoed JHEAIPP’s stance by claiming that there was absolutely no need for any religion to be hosting celebrations not tied to their own religions.
As such, Hari Raya being a Muslim celebration should be celebrated by Muslims at mosques and surau – and obviously not within the premises of the Thean Hock Keong temple in Bagan Ajam, mainland Penang.
The founder of NGO Multiracial Reverted Muslims (MRM) was also adamant that the religious authorities should similarly ban Muslim bodies from hosting celebrations not tied to Islam. Each to their own is the clear message here.
Next up is Tee – the former Terengganu’s Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) professor – who also seems dead set against any form of cross-cultural relations.
Not content on opposing the Raya open house itself, he made sure to ramp up hostilities by making it sound as if the tokong was a house of ill-repute where “gambling, alcohol/pork consumption and wild concerts” took place.
Like Firdaus, he also rubbished the idea of such open houses being conducive to unity but instead viewed such initiative as attempts to “liberalise” Islam and mislead Muslims.
In essence, both preachers with large Malay Muslim following further raised the spectre of illegal houses of worship as an issue that deserved more attention rather than these so-called open house celebrations.
I cannot help but feel that such messages are designed to keep Malaysians well and truly apart. By constantly highlighting the differences of others (pork eaters, alcohol drinkers), these two characters are creating a superiority complex among their dedicated followers.
Their message is loud and clear – non-Muslims lag behind in terms of patriotism and are also culturally insensitive.
These sentiments can also be seen on the many comments to both posts – that non-Malays do NOT want to learn Bahasa Malaysia, non-Malays are against the teaching of Jawi at schools, etc.
From Ridhuan’s FB post were these gems:
Similar negativity was also unsurprisingly found among the many comments which insinuated hidden agenda to ruin the Muslim solidarity in Firdaus’s post.
Their poisonous invective is a very worrying trend. Malaysians are being pulled apart and all too often, religion is being used as a convenient excuse.
The fact that the authorities have been mute over their many controversial and provocative statements leads me to wonder if both have some sort of immunity.
The less examples we have of both Firdaus and Ridhuan is the first step towards national unity. Unless these agent provocateurs are silenced, hopes of a country that is both proud and at ease with its multi-ethnic identity will remain a distant pipe dream.
Muibbah Malaysian
Ipoh, Perak
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of
- Focus Malaysia.
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