When a good guy tries to reason thing with a bunch of violent Muslim criminals !
Respect begets respect — David D. Mathew
MARCH 28 — In a November 2009 referendum, the Swiss voted to ban the construction of the prayer towers of mosques known as minarets.
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party had earlier launched a campaign to have the erecting of minarets banned, claiming that the minaret is not necessary for worship.
Switzerland is a secular state.
Article 15 of the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation guarantees everyone the freedom of religion and the right to choose freely their religion or their philosophical convictions, and to profess them alone or in community with others.
Despite this, there are less than a handful of minarets in Switzerland — none of which are allowed to make the call to prayer.
Oskar Freysinger, a member of Parliament from the Swiss People’s Party, was quoted by the BBC as having said: “We don’t have anything against Muslims. But we don’t want minarets. The minaret is a symbol of a political and aggressive Islam; it’s a symbol of Islamic law. The minute you have minarets in Europe it means Islam will have taken over.”
In early December 2009, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman expressed Malaysia’s dismay over the ban.
Anifah said in a statement that Malaysia hoped that the Swiss government would make every effort to reverse the act of intolerance that would serve to generate negative consequences on society, especially the Muslim community, as a result of the referendum.
On March 23, 2009, the Bible Society of Malaysia imported copies of the Alkitab Berita Baik from Indonesia. These Bibles were refused entry and detained by the Home Ministry at Port Klang on “security grounds”.
The home minister claimed that the Bibles were held due to the pending court case over the use of the word “Allah”.
On the matter of the court case, it is indeed rather mystifying that the Court of Appeal has yet to call up the “Allah” case for hearing despite the chief justice’s initiative to clear the backlog of cases all over the country.
Hearing dates are now being fixed on a speedy basis but the “Allah” case remains pending despite the High Court having ruled as far back as December 2009 that pursuant to Articles 11 and 12 of the Federal Constitution, the Herald had the constitutional right to use the word in respect of instruction and education of the congregation in the Christian religion.
I digress. Back to the Bibles.
They remained impounded until March 15, 2011 — which was when Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Idris Jala announced that the government had decided to release a total of 35,000 Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia withheld at Port Klang and Kuching port.
There were two conditions attached to the release order — that each book is stamped with a serial number and a ministry disclaimer that says “For Christians only.”
The treatment of the Bibles in Malaysia is not much different from the Swiss attitude towards minarets.
Both examples exhibit an attitude of disrespect and intolerance towards minority religions. Right-wing elements in the governments of both countries have managed to ride roughshod over the sensitivities of minority religions by playing the fear card.
In Switzerland, it is the fear of Islamic radicalism. Over here in Malaysia, it is the fear of the propagation of Christianity.
But the point is this.
Minarets do not breed Islamic radicalism. Neither does the call to prayer. Intolerance, human rights abuses and a narrow reading of the holy books however are some examples of reasons behind the spread of religious radicalism, Islamic or otherwise.
Similarly, reading Malay-language Bibles do not cause Muslims or Buddhist or others to leave their respective religions. These are matters of personal faith.
In any event, the banning of Malay-language Bibles and the dramatic steps taken to label them “For Christians Only” with serial numbers stamped on them proceed on the flawed basis that Muslims only read in Malay.
It also ignores the fact that the Malay-language Bible can easily be downloaded from the Internet.
If Malaysia expects Muslims to be respected in nations where the religion of Islam is a minority, then it must first learn to respect minority faiths at home.
The Christian right in Europe, when it treats minority religions badly, does other Christians around the world no favours.
Similarly, the Muslim right in Malaysia does fellow Muslims around the world no favours when foreign news reports pick up on things like the impounding of Bibles and the banning of the usage of words like “Allah”.
It is about time that we learned to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Or alternatively, hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. — mysinchew.com
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