A week of sadness and madness

The past couple of days have been both saddening and maddening. Saddening because I recently got news of the death of a friend of mine. And maddening (and saddening as well) because of events yesterday in which several churches in Malaysia were firebombed. I don't feel the need to reiterate these events, they are all over the news not only in Malaysia but on CNN, MSN and around the world. The reason for these attacks is also stupid and more maddening... just because some Muslims (thankfully not all of them) believe the word 'Allah' is exclusive to them. It's maddening because they don't realise that Catholics and Christians who only speak Malay have been using the word 'Allah' for ages, and just because they are afraid of their fellow Muslims being confused into becoming Christian by us using the word 'Allah', this stupid molehill turned into a mountain. If the Muslims have such bad understanding of their own faith that they cannot tell the difference between their own god and the Christian God just because they hear the word 'Allah', isn't that their own fault for not being well versed in their own teachings? Shouldn't they be making more effort to educate the Muslims on how to tell the difference, instead of hitting out at Catholics who been using the word for ages? There are numerous articles online written by Muslim writers, including Marina Mahathir, who has argued that 'Allah' has been used by Christians around the world for ages, but when it comes to the fanatics, all this falls on deaf ears. What's even more maddening is that most of the church attacked were not Catholic churches but protestant churches, which has nothing to do with the Catholic publication, the 'Herald' which is using the word 'Allah'. I suppose if they can't even tell the difference between a Catholic church and a Protestant church, then they would just as easily confused by the use of the word 'Allah' by Catholics. Fantastic way of demonstrating their level of intelligence to the world. The whole issue was just mildly funny when it became a court case. Now they have taken it to the extent of causing arson and throwing bombs into churches, which is far from a laughing matter. What if someone had been in these churches and been badly injured or killed? Will that make them happy? If these people have no qualms about burning down other people's places of worship, then what is stopping them from taking the next step and strapping a bomb to themselves before walking into a church service tomorrow? Even my mum warned to stay away from church for a while, but I'm not about to let a bunch of uncivilized hooligans scare me away from going to worship. Christians around Malaysia are praying for peace and protection, and I know He will provide. If they try any funny things tomorrow, God will protect his people even if other property gets damaged.

Some people claim this fire was sparked by certain political parties out for political gain, and I have little doubt that this is true, considering there is even a Facebook group called 'Menentang Penggunaan Nama 'Allah' oleh Golongan Bukan Islam'. And of the list of officers of this group, I think almost half of them are from a certain political group whose name befits their actions Coz' their actions make everyone (except their own people, of course) either go "Ummm???" or "Nooooo!!". While this doesn't prove for sure that said political group is brainwashing anyone into throwing bombs into churches, it DOES show there is a definite political link in the whole 'Allah' issue. One of these officers is the son of our wonderful ex-Prime Minister, whose name I decided not to mention coz' in this country it seems to be a crime under what I like to call the Incredibly Stoopid Act to point out the injustices committed by people in power. So I will refer to said person as "Mucky" (Isn't that an endearing name? When I get another dog, I think I might name it that). Mucky, ironically enough, stated on his FB profile that he also supported the whole idea of 1Malaysia. It was so maddening and ludicrous at the same time, that I couldn't resist sending him a little message to poke him with the irony. I suppose considering he is a leader of the political party that makes people either go "Ummm??" or "Nooooo!!", doing such a thing isn't wise. Perhaps tomorrow some the rambunctious youth of said political group will come hitting on my door and try to firebomb my house for speaking up against one of their great leaders? But if they are out for political gain, then this is exactly what they want - for non-Muslims to be afraid. So afraid that they won't dare speak up for fear of getting into trouble with the government like what's happened to RPK and other bloggers. But if Mucky is as all for '1Malaysia' as he claims to be, then he being an political leader will listen to what people like me have to say without making threats. He actually replied to my message, which was a bit of a pleasant surprise, considering I thought he would more likely ignore me as a nobody. So since I had his attention, I decided to throw him a challenge. Here's a rundown of what I said to him on Facebook (I spoke initially in Malay, so sorry for anyone who doesn't understand. I'm lazy to translate:

My 1st message:
"Bersama sama melaksanakan gagasan 1Malaysia" tetapi kamu memimpin kumpulan "Menentang penggunan nama Allah oleh golongan bukan Islam". Itu bukan ONE malaysia lagi, itu Malaysia terbahagi kepada golongan Islam dan bukan Islam, faham tak? Adakah Allah kamu akan bergembira kalau kuli-kuli kumpulan kamu berjaya meruntuhkan gereja-gereja di Malaysia atau membunuh semua pastor dan pemimpin Kristian? Orang seperti kamu menyebabkan orang Islam diketawakan oleh seluruh dunia luar dan menjadikan ekonomi kita lebih teruk sebab orang luar takut melabur pada Malaysia sekarang. Kakak kamu, Marina, memang lebih bijak daripada kamu. Belajarlah daripadanya.

Mucky's reply:
sy tidak rase ini org melayu islam buat... mana bukti dia? kalau sdri ingat sejarah kapal terbang langgar bangunan di us tempoh hari.. angkara siapa? mana org yahudi ada dlm bangunan tersebut...? siapa yang bakar sentimen dahulu? kita hidup dah lebih 50 tahun kenapa isu perlu di ungkit..? kalau sdri bersetuju kepada tidak sokong sekolah wawasan @ untuk semua... siapa rasict ??

My 2nd message:
Kenapa isu perlu diungkit? Itu soalan yang patut ditanya oleh orang Katolik. Orang Katolik di Sabah dan Sarawak yang hanya fasih dalam Bahasa Melayu telah menggunakan nama 'Allah' sebelum kemerdekaan negara kita. Begitu juga dengan umat Katolik dan Kristian di Arab dan Indonesia. Kenapa hanya sekarang penggunaan nama Allah oleh orang Katolik menjadi isu walaupun mereka telah menggunakannya sejak berpuluh-puluh tahun?? Kalau takut orang Islam akan menjadi 'keliru' dengan penggunaan nama Allah oleh orang Katolik, ini bukan kesalahan orang Katolik tetapi kesalahan orang Melayu yang langsung tidak memahami pengajaran dan kepercayaan Islam, lalu mereka hanya tahu mempercayai apa-apa yang diperkatakan oleh orang lain. Orang Islam yang memang memahami pengajaran Islam tidak akan dikelirukan dengan begitu senang, seperti yang diperkatakan oleh Marina juga dalam artikel blognya "Confident People Do Not Get Confused". Kalau nama 'Allah' menjadi copyright orang Islam, apa perkataan yang lain akan menjadi copyright Islam? Seluruh Bahasa Melayu? Kalau begitu, Bahasa Melayu tidak perlu dijadikan bahasa kebangsaan, jadikannya hanya eksklusif kepada orang Melayu sahaja. No problem because I can do very well with English. And no, I do not believe it was real Muslims attacking our churches. Real Muslims understand that the Quran preaches peace and instructs Muslims that other places of worship should not be destroyed. I have many Muslim friends and colleagues who are nice people and I know they would not carry out such horrible acts. But the attackers are fools who think they are upholding the name of 'Allah' because someone told them to. Do you know that even if the police claims there is no evidence that these acts were carried out by Muslims, this is what the rest of the country and the WORLD already thinks? Just read the world news on CNN, Reuters, MSN, etc, all with headlines saying "Malaysian Churches firebombed amid 'Allah' dispute." And the rest of the world also already knows Muslim terrorists were behind the attacks on the World Trade Centres. I know not all Muslims are like this, but the few that are giving the rest of you a VERY bad name. So while you continue to wait for the 'evidence', the rest of the world is already seeing Malaysian Muslims as a bunch of Christian-attacking fanatics. Is this what you want the rest of the world to think of your fellow Muslims? Do you support these acts of intimidation against Christian on our Malaysian soil? And do you really support the whole idea of 1Malaysia? If not, then as a leader of UMNO, I ask you to gather your fellow UMNO members in your next protest to put aside your 'Allah' issue and instead protest against these acts of violence of Christians, and send the message to those fools pretending to be Muslims that your GOD (I won't use the word 'Allah', nanti I kena hentam sebab bukan Melayu) does not condone such things. And for your information, I am not one of those against the wawasan school. I myself studied in sekolah kebangsaan, not Chinese school, or else I would not be able to speak your language as well as I can. Thank you.

I just sent that last message, so no reply from him yet. I wonder if there is any tiny chance of him actually taking me up on my challenge and starting a protest against the attacks on the churches. If he does, I guess there is still some small inkling of hope for his political party. But judging from the dumb questions he was asking me, nope, don't think it's going to happen. He's the one asking ME who was raising sentiments after 50 years. Haiyoh, so faaarny.

To my Muslim friends reading this, I understand that these fanatical Muslims are the minority. I have read many articles by Muslims who have spoken out to condemn the acts of violence... I also have a number of Muslim friends and colleagues whom I know personally to be nice and wonderful people who would not think of doing such heinous acts. So I know it is unfair to lump all of you together as one big crazy group of religious fanatics... this is simply not true. But I hope the Muslims that are equally as saddened by these events will not just stand by and hope it will all go away soon. These fools pretending to be Muslims will not listen to reason by non-Muslims... but they may listen to their fellow Muslims who stand up against these acts of violence. Stand up for what is right, so the rest of the world will know that the violent few Muslims do NOT represent all of you.

And to my fellow Christians, if you can be totally peaceful and forgiving and encouraging over this, then great. For me, I can't helped but be somewhat pissed, but I think it is ok to be angry too. Jesus was also angry at the unrighteous Pharisees, but he never cursed them or harmed them (the most he did was threw around a few tables outside a temple coz' they were selling stuff. That's not half as bad as firebombs). Let's not retaliate violence with violence, but uphold peace in this nation. As Jesus forgave us, let's forgive them (Although understandably it's very hard, and if I could catch those firebombing hooligans, I'd find it very hard to resist the urge to punch them. Hey, I'm just being honest).

A week of sadness and madness