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 Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:17 pm Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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Malaysia doesn't have freedom of religion. Early this year there was a big political stink over whether or not to allow Bibles to be sold in the Malay language. Some people wanted to ban them outright, and others thought it was okay to allow them as long as they were stamped with the imprint "Not for Muslims".
You can learn a lot about religious rights in Malaysia by searching the country's name on this site:
http://www.asianews.it
If it gives you Italian, just try it again. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sat Dec 15, 2007 16:48 pm Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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If you speak to many Malays, they will claim that Malaysia do have religious freedom. The way I see it, it's only a freedom to the Muslims, despite the fact that non Muslims too belong to the country.
Problems usually occur when a Malay girl falls in love with a non-Muslim Indian or Chinese. The family will go against the marriage at full force and unless the man is willing to embrace Islam, she can't marry the girl.
See, we have it in the constitution that says Malay is Muslim, automatically and vice versa. So if you are a Chinese who embraced Islam, you are treated as a Malay. The weird thing is we also have a law that says, when we reach 18 we are free to practice any religion we want, then again, for the Malays, it contradicts the Constitution.
It has created a lot of problems and heartache. For most couples, yielding to the culture and law is the easiest way to be together. Some really embraced the religion and learnt to love the religion, even more pious or serious about the religion compared to their spouse who were born Muslim. But always, they are just Muslims by the name. Some opted to live outside of Malaysia, just to be together.
It's really sad. In my case, my father always convince me that I can marry whoever I want, as long as he makes me happy because that is the most important thing to him. My mother is more on the conservative side though. I always tell her that I am sure there are a lot of good Muslim men out there, but truthfully, I can't control who I fall in love with.
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NinaZara
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| Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:29 am Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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For anyone interested, here is a simple article on Malay-Muslim & Chinese-Muslim Paradox in Malaysia.
http://maverickislamchristianity.blogspot.com/
Islam transcends gender, culture and race. But everywhere around the world we see the practice of Islam is highly influenced by the believers' culture and background.
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Okotteru Papa mo suki dakedo, nikoniko yasashii Papa ha mo~tto suki! |
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NinaZara
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| Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:55 am Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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Sounds like it sucks, also sounds like a recipe for interfighting between the different groups
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Boke
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| Mon Dec 17, 2007 14:04 pm Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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| NinaZara wrote: | | If you speak to many Malays, they will claim that Malaysia do have religious freedom. The way I see it, it's only a freedom to the Muslims, despite the fact that non Muslims too belong to the country. |
This reminds me of an unintentionally hilarious quote I once read from some Chinese political official. He outlined some government policy, and then said, "Chinese citizens have the freedom to agree with this policy, but not the freedom to disagree with it." |
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Jamie (K)
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| Mon Dec 17, 2007 16:26 pm Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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| Boke wrote: | | Sounds like it sucks, also sounds like a recipe for interfighting between the different groups |
Yes, it used to be different though. It was only in the late 70s that Muslims gain their religious consciousness. Before, the faith of the couples is determined by the husbands. I can see immediate example from both sides of my parents. My mother is half Malay, her mother is an Iban (one tribe in Borneo, no religion but they believe in ghosts and spirits) and her father is a Muslim Malay, from Indonesia, therefore my grandmother followed her husband and became Muslim. Then my grandmother from my father's side is Chinese, her husband is a Muslim Javanese, naturally, she followed her husband too.
But during that time, the focus is not on changing religion, but more on following the husbands. And at that time, in villages where Malays are the majority, other races who lived in the community carried the same lifestyle. So whether you are a Chinese, an Iban or a Malay has no real meaning. My grandmother doesn't even speak Chinese, but both my parents speak Ibanese, because of the mixed environment. Plus, they were not Muslims who practice Islam in the real sense. So at that time you would find a Malay Muslim drinking tuak (a type of alcoholic drink from rice) in an Iban's house.
However, this is only true for people in Borneo, we have higher tolerance compared to people from the Peninsula Malaysia. Though things are changing now. Now, most Ibanese are Christians and supposedly all Malays are Muslims. Their awareness of practicing the religion in the real sense makes it harder and harder to tolerate each other.
But to me, it depends downright on the individual himself. I have Malay friends who behave prejudicely towards Chinese or Indians, and I also have Chinese friends who act the same. Fortunately I also have friends who don't act like that. It's what you think, if you don't think it, it isn't there.
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NinaZara
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| Mon Dec 17, 2007 16:38 pm Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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| Nina, you say that all this started to change in the 1970s. That's the time problems with intolerance (or with more intolerance) started to arise in a lot of Muslim countries. How much of it can be attributed to oil money enabling the Saudis to build and finance Wahabbi-leaning madrassas in these places? |
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Jamie (K)
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| Mon Dec 17, 2007 17:05 pm Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: | | Nina, you say that all this started to change in the 1970s. That's the time problems with intolerance (or with more intolerance) started to arise in a lot of Muslim countries. How much of it can be attributed to oil money enabling the Saudis to build and finance Wahabbi-leaning madrassas in these places? |
I don't know. I wasn't even born yet. All I know is dakwah Islamiyah (Islamic preaching) started in the 70s and was very active. But I would guess not much. Because many preachers or students of Islamic studies went to sekolah pondok, literally 'hut schools' where they were separated from the other civilizations, without TV or radio, not even electricity and piped water. They lived just to study the Koran and I heard these people are very pure that one piece of impure information can make them forget one ayat from the Koran. They are usually hafiz, people who learnt the Koran by heart. But somehow, many of them went to Saudi Arabia after graduating this school. Maybe somebody sponsored them.
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NinaZara
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| Mon Dec 17, 2007 17:16 pm Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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| NinaZara wrote: | | I don't know. I wasn't even born yet. All I know is dakwah Islamiyah (Islamic preaching) started in the 70s and was very active. But I would guess not much. Because many preachers or students of Islamic studies went to sekolah pondok, literally 'hut schools' where they were separated from the other civilizations, without TV or radio, not even electricity and piped water. They lived just to study the Koran and I heard these people are very pure that one piece of impure information can make them forget one ayat from the Koran. They are usually hafiz, people who learnt the Koran by heart. But somehow, many of them went to Saudi Arabia after graduating this school. Maybe somebody sponsored them. |
This is the kind of school the Saudis have financed all over the world, and it's evidently one of the sources of all the radicalism. They remind me of history, when the Muslims invaded Egypt and burned down the Greeks' library at Alexandria because "you only need one book". Thus was destroyed the most complete assembly of all the Western world's philosophical and scientific knowledge up to that time. |
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Jamie (K)
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Jamie (K)
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| Fri Jan 25, 2008 16:24 pm Malaysian article in Time magazine |
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I read about this queuing nonsense two days ago and surprisingly nothing from that particular state surprise me anymore. This is the state where my sister is currently doing her medical studies. She is the only one in the campus who doesn't wear the veil and you cannot imagine the things she is going thru.
1. She went to a musollah (prayer room) to carry her obligation as a muslim but she got chased away because people there thought she was a non-muslim. I don't know whether it was because of her not wearing the veil or because she looks like a Chinese girl.
2. She was fined RM50 for eating at KFC with her boyfriend. (Inappropriate conduct)
3. A daily basis of harrassment thru SMS to tell her to cover up. She was jeered at the student cafeteria from time to time. Again, because she doesn't wear the veil.
My best friend who attended one of 'elegant' school in that state couldn't stand the confining environment and asked to be transferred. This is a friend who believes strongly in wearing the veil, and like myself, we were brought up to guard our obligation carefully,five times a day. When I told her about what my sister is going thru, she salutes her strength for putting up with all the nonsense.
This state is one of the two states governed by Pan Malaysian Islamic Party
There is a large group of people in this state who HATES English because according to them English is the language spoken by the infidels!
Malaysian MEN shop in supermarket. But I don't know what Malaysian men from this particular state do in supermarket. If they were supposed to have superior values as Muslim men compared to other men in Malaysia, I don't understand the need of that ridiculous rule.
And the confiscating rule of the children Christian books were taken back because the government realized they were meant for Christian children and Christian do not see anything wrong in materializing Prophets in pictures. It is a sin in Islam because Prophets are too holy to be materialize into something they were not (to us Muslims). Muslims in Malaysia should realize there are other believers and they need their freedom too.
Imposing Muslims thinking to others are just not the way of doing things. How good or how correct you are as a Muslim should be between you and God. I got crap from some Muslim men just because I don't wear the veil but more respect from non Muslim men because most non Muslim men whom I met were afraid to even shake my hand after knowing I'm a Muslim.
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NinaZara
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