We know we are free to worship any faith of our choice, but we must not interfere with other people’s practice of religion. The freedom of religion is enshrined in our country’s Federal Constitution and it is one of the most revered basic human rights recognised by the United Nations.
Freedom of religion also requires that we must allow other people to practise their own faiths in any way they want unless it is a form of deviationist teaching that brings harm to its followers. We do read news about these deviationists from time to time.
We know that religion is a very sensitive matter and religious conflicts can lead to massive bloodshed over a long period of time, causing great social turbulence and untold human hardship. History and the current world stage are packed with human tragedies returned in blood all because of religious strife.
In those long years of Merdeka, we never had a religious incident in which violent acts were committed over religious quarrels. Now we have broken the good record — a few loose religious nuts have taken to petrol bombing some local churches. Such a blemish has brought national shame on all Malaysians and the wound to our national soul will take a long time to heal.
At stake, is the bedrock of our multi-religious harmony: our tolerance for other people’s religion and our daily social contract to pledge never to use violence against our fellow Malaysians over religious matters.
People are worried and they follow the news closely and friends exchange information whenever they meet.
Malaysians of all faiths and ethnicities must in one voice tell this small handful of anonymous, faceless and odourless racists that their kind is not wanted in our midst. They are not worthy to be Malaysians.
Can you imagine the kind of shady characters who will go so low as to desecrate the holy ground upon which other people worship their God. It takes a kind of sick mentality for anybody to want to defile what is considered sacred by one group of worshippers. This kind of action is an insult to all religions, and their faithful, and should be condemned in one voice by the people of all faiths.
No matter how we disagree about religious matters, we should always deal with one another courteously, politely, and with due respect. There should never be any suggestion of violence, or hint of violence, as this is the surest road to national perdition and blind hatred.
Every day we see how this new blind hatred is tearing an innocent world apart.
In all religions, there is a universal value in cherishing life above death, always.
We must approach our religious feeling with great humanity because religious sentiments are indeed a great gift from God to men that enrich our lives and give us a purpose to our existence.
If nothing else, we have to take a lesson from monotheism and admit that before the end of the world, God’s drama for mankind has not been fully played out yet. Nobody has the last word on God’s plan for mankind.
Our very diverse population has long learned to live side by side peacefully and we have accumulated a great deal of social capital over a long period of years through social interaction. We know that however politicians quarrel among themselves, we, the rest of Malaysia, will have to live as one big happy family.
This is the time for all Malaysians of goodwill to step forward and discard all that is negative and divisive among us.
We have to show to the religious extremists that Malaysians are united and religious extremists are an eye sore to the religion itself.
08/09/10
Freedom of religion also requires that we must allow other people to practise their own faiths in any way they want unless it is a form of deviationist teaching that brings harm to its followers. We do read news about these deviationists from time to time.
We know that religion is a very sensitive matter and religious conflicts can lead to massive bloodshed over a long period of time, causing great social turbulence and untold human hardship. History and the current world stage are packed with human tragedies returned in blood all because of religious strife.
In those long years of Merdeka, we never had a religious incident in which violent acts were committed over religious quarrels. Now we have broken the good record — a few loose religious nuts have taken to petrol bombing some local churches. Such a blemish has brought national shame on all Malaysians and the wound to our national soul will take a long time to heal.
At stake, is the bedrock of our multi-religious harmony: our tolerance for other people’s religion and our daily social contract to pledge never to use violence against our fellow Malaysians over religious matters.
People are worried and they follow the news closely and friends exchange information whenever they meet.
Malaysians of all faiths and ethnicities must in one voice tell this small handful of anonymous, faceless and odourless racists that their kind is not wanted in our midst. They are not worthy to be Malaysians.
Can you imagine the kind of shady characters who will go so low as to desecrate the holy ground upon which other people worship their God. It takes a kind of sick mentality for anybody to want to defile what is considered sacred by one group of worshippers. This kind of action is an insult to all religions, and their faithful, and should be condemned in one voice by the people of all faiths.
No matter how we disagree about religious matters, we should always deal with one another courteously, politely, and with due respect. There should never be any suggestion of violence, or hint of violence, as this is the surest road to national perdition and blind hatred.
Every day we see how this new blind hatred is tearing an innocent world apart.
In all religions, there is a universal value in cherishing life above death, always.
We must approach our religious feeling with great humanity because religious sentiments are indeed a great gift from God to men that enrich our lives and give us a purpose to our existence.
If nothing else, we have to take a lesson from monotheism and admit that before the end of the world, God’s drama for mankind has not been fully played out yet. Nobody has the last word on God’s plan for mankind.
Our very diverse population has long learned to live side by side peacefully and we have accumulated a great deal of social capital over a long period of years through social interaction. We know that however politicians quarrel among themselves, we, the rest of Malaysia, will have to live as one big happy family.
This is the time for all Malaysians of goodwill to step forward and discard all that is negative and divisive among us.
We have to show to the religious extremists that Malaysians are united and religious extremists are an eye sore to the religion itself.
08/09/10
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