stained
15 hours ago
Friday, January 08, 2010
What's in a name?
I have no words for the burning of the church in KL. It left me speechless. I cannot find the words to say anything. I feel like bowing my head and fading into the background. I am, outwardly, the same as what those barbarians are. I am Malay. Pure, as far back as I can tell. And I am Muslim.
Of course, those savages are no Muslims.
But in my multi-raced company, where Malays are a minority, I feel all eyes on me. And I am ashamed. Ashamed that by identity, I could easily be identified as being like them. Like savages. Like ignorant, stupid, and intolerant bastards.
Here is what I think, based on what I learned, particularly from a wonderful lecturer whom I admire, Dr Fadzilah, who taught me Islamic Aqidah in IIUM (I am currently looking for my old notes to make sure I'm saying the right things):
- Allah is not the word for the Almighty Creator. No name could contain Him. But 'Allah' is the closest word to encompass Him (I want to revoke this statement, cos I think I got the facts wrong, but in any case, what I'm saying is that, in a way, cos I don't know how else to put it, what's in a name?).
- I don't know what to think about the issue on the name Christians would like to use to address God, but in whatever way, God is still God. What differentiates religions is that how we practice our belief and how we believe in the concept of God. But what makes us the same is the strife towards good and peace. So if we can't reconcile the dissimilarities in belief, at least unite on the want for peace.
- We all think we are right. We all want to be right. We will always feel we are right. So therefore we all want to be superior to the other. But it doesn't mean we are. Nothing gives us the right to force someone else to take what we believe in. For example, me as a person, I want to know something before I believe in it. I don't want to be forced without knowing what I'm doing means. Otherwise, where will appreciation come from?
- Everywhere I am reading "...a row over the use of the word "Allah" for the Christian God", or "Other religions Gods cannot share the name..." etc. Don't they know that to say "their God" or "other gods" or "their religion's god" etc is a form of monolatry? It is as though they are saying that there are many gods, and each religion has their own god. It is just up to us which one we want to worship. This needs to be corrected. It may be an honest mistake in semantics, but it does connote the wrong idea.
Ashamed and afraid,
Hazlin
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Yes, I was very caught by surprise when I read this, and it comes at the same time that Coptic Christian churches in Egypt are being burned and people beaten by the Muslim's there...
All very sad, and intolerable. I am ashamed of the way people have been acting towards one another, and when I found this news coming out of Malaysia, I was so disappointed.
I think the government is spreading too much propaganda. The protests were supported by UMNO, and detested by PAS. I think there is plenty to be said about trying to keep people's minds on something else instead of the corruption that is going on.
The Muslims who did this are ignorant, and uneducated about their religion, they let other people tell them what they should think, and this is blatantly against what the Quran tells us.
I would think using the word Allah would be a compliment to Muslims, because it means other religions are recognizing that we all come from the same, One God. We may be Christian, or Muslim, or Jewish, but we worship Allah. This is exactly in line with Islamic belief, because this is what we, as Muslims, are told is the truth by the Quran. So this rage from some Muslims has left me dumbfounded.
The excuse given was that Muslims would get confused... hmm, that is like saying we are too stupid to understand our own religion.. But you know, considering how some Muslims has reacted, maybe this is true........
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