I was so engrossed in writing my novel last night that I did not realize that U-jean is online. My concentration on writing my novel was disrupted for a while by the message that she sent. She sent me the url for the video above, and suddenly I felt human again, as I’m given another thing to speak up for, which is, control, choices and women. While writing a novel these days seems like a task to me but writing non-fiction articles is not, I suddenly wonder if I finally lost my touch in writing novels and romantic fictions. Words flow easily when I write non-fiction things or things that’s regarding to what’s going on around me or around the world. I actually stopped writing my bloody NaNoWriMo novel for a while so that I’m able to write this one. I wonder what has become of me. Perhaps, age is catching up on me, and I am no longer oblivious to what’s going on around me.
To fully understand what I will be ranting about this time, you readers would have to watch the youtube video above.
As I mention repeatedly in my previous entries ever since I started this weblog, I am not a religious person, and very far from being religious. I feel that I have a lot more to learn about religions of the world, and I prefer to keep my mind open. I embrace the idea that all religion are good and beautiful in their own way. I try my best to do good deeds in my life not because I fear hellfire or retribution in my afterlife, but it’s because I’m raise to live my life with clear conscience and with moral values.
I have always believed that every religion is beautiful in it’s own way. Islam included. Islam itself means peace and according to history that has been dictate, Islam has liberate many men and saved so many women from being sold off as slaves. Not to mention stop baby girls from being buried alive as society back then see girls as a liability rather than assets. Islam has changed the life of many. The teaching itself is meant to bring peace to the world and change the people to be better human beings. Islam thought people about patience, tolerance and respect.
Yes, indeed, Islam is a beautiful religion. But in the quest for power, human beings make use of the religion to oppress one another, going against the real teaching of Islam where Muslims are supposed to love mankind, not violate the ones who do not share the same faith as them. Human use Islam to control the weaker ones. Women are usually victims in the quests for power and monopoly. Women are silenced by the voices who uses holy writings to force women to submit to their wimps. Women are denied their freedom to live like a human beings, instead, women are forced to live like men’s possession, regardless of their contributions and roles in the modern world.
Some humans who prayed five times a day was convinced that they are guaranteed eternal bliss in heaven during their afterlife. It is good to have something to believe in, such as afterlife, but what is not good about it that the fact that they feel secure and blessed by God makes them conceited, and instead of showing the beauty of Islam to people who do not share the same faith, they mock and insulted the ones who do not share the same faith with them.
Feeling so powerful that they are guaranteed a good afterlife by praying and following sunnah, they feel that they are superior, and so, they demand that the rest of the world follow their lead. They feel that is the right thing to do, and they are convinced that the Holy Quran requires them to spread the good faith through demanding people to follow their lead.
That is not right, isn’t it? The Prophet Muhammad himself spread Islam through gentle teaching. He showed to the world that Islam is beautiful because it’s not about forcing people, it’s not about gaining power, but it’s all about gentle persuasion, leading by good example, and protecting the weak. According to history, he never force people to be a Muslim, but showed them Islamic way of life until people fell in love with the religion itself because of the peaceful and protective characteristic.
And yet, why do we have people forcing others to believe in what they do not believe in a rather harsh way? It’s either you believe it, or we’ll condemn you, that’s what human these days do. Why can’t they follow the prophet’s footstep when they are spreading Islam?
Why do people around the world clashes with each other because of religion and what they believe in? Major wars are caused by religion…. The Crusaders versus the Jihads….no I’m wrong, religion do not clash with each other. No religion promotes war and disrespect towards one another, it’s human that uses religion’s name in vain to violate one another and in the process, destroy each other’s civilization and take away many innocent lives in the process.
The calls for peace are all but rudely ignored. Like what the lady said in the video, it’s about time the Muslim think about what they could contribute to the world, not demand the world follow their wimps or demand people to share same beliefs as them.
But to me, it’s not just the Muslim who should think of what they could contribute to the world to make the world a better place to live in, but everyone should think of what they could offer to the world and live in peace with one another instead of trampling the weaker ones or demand others believe in what they believed in.
Cleffairy: God create mankind to be at peace and harmony with each other and religion as a way of life. But why human beings are constantly disrupting peace and uses religion’s name in vain?
I think the gravest mistake god ever made is to create MAN, but then again,if he did not create MAN, then god will not be know, it is funny, isnt it ?
Man are using religion as a platform to launch their agenda for fame, money, self indulgence, to get support from ignorant or blur minded people etc. No religion promote war or killing unless it is the devil that you need to deal with. Religion is for peace!!!
Keep religion out of all the dirty plan that man has!!!
Respect each other religion and do not impose unnecessary ruling on non related people.
Clef, I have just participated in this debate and it is quite ironic to see the backwardness of thoughts for some – https://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/14734/84/
Anyway, I am a christian and am totally against Bushism or any usage of religion to justify reason. There is no “Christian nation” on earth even if the crusaders wanted them. Would not want to debate on Islam.
On your thoughts on Mohammed, do give a bit more research. What we learn in our schools and even some stories from our friends may not be the true reflection. With the advent of Internet, I have found out more and these views would be condemned ala Syed Hamid or any UMNO chaps.
Oh YES AMOKER? on what basis do u make the statement that every facts on the net is exceptionally true??
And this “Would not want to debate on Islam.”… yet u r saying What we’ve learnt bout Mohamed in school might not be the true reflection..
isn that is trying to DEBATE already?
I presume u r saying that Mohamed is of opposite characteristic from what we knew..
Eugene… I once had said that too. the biggest mistake that god made is to create man to spawn the world, but then again, without human, God’s existence will not be known. And I’ve always asked myself this question too when I was younger, is there a God in the first place? Or God is an entity created by men to cling to in the times of desperation and to control those of weak minded? But, as I grew older, I believe that it’s good to be guided by religion, as long as we do not use God’s name in vain.
Steven, definitely, without a doubt. No religion is dirty or evil, and yet men are using it to gain control over the weak and promote violence all around the world. Remember what the sleepyhead of a PM did when he first came into power? What did he promote in the first place in order to gain support and popularity in politics? Since day 1, I’m skeptical about his ability to govern, as he uses the ‘Islamic’ approach to gain support from the Malays. Give me ultimate freedom of expression, my article would not be as above, and I will be condemning many more specific people, but then again, I am in Malaysia, and I have to thread carefully when I write… 🙁 your brother saw what I wrote, and knowing what I’m trying to deliver, I was told to lock this post after a week. LOL. 🙁 Darn! But he’s right, can’t risk being like RPK anyway. Everyone in Malaysia is not free to give their opinion about Islam though. Most human in Malaysia belongs to the conceited group who forces others to respect their beliefs and demand people to follow their faith, anyway. Forcing people to believe what they do not actually believe is a violation of human rights, and yet we are not allowed to question it in Malaysia. So much for ‘freedom’ to believe in Malaysia.
Amoker, yeah, that’s the thing that I’m trying to mildly question over here. The rights of women to choose. The fatwas council is oppressing the women rights and to be have. They demand the women just to follow or the women would be punished. I could not really say it in my article, well, at least not without damning people. I believe in freedom of choice, not what they’re doing. Actually, I know the prophets have flaws. He is human after all, and there are many things he did doesn’t sit well with me, especially polygamy. But if I mention it over here, I’ll end up like RPK. Then you will know how I really look like because I’ll be very ‘famous’ LOL. Aiyo, please don’t talk about Botak la… that feller pissed me off like hell. Makes stupid blunders everyday. And joke of the century is about the police force. You know the Chow Kit Case, right? I find it very hilarious! Tell me again why police exists? And here I thought police are supposed to protect peace and uphold justice, even in dark areas like Chow Kit. What a joke! And Rembau division is a worth mention too… KJ’s people all looks like mat rempit lah. Disgust me like hell. Hope the sleepyhead goes to sleep soon, so that i will not have to bear seeing his monkey son in law anymore! What an eyesore!
Anon, I think he’s trying to tell me that I have much to learn and not look at things only in one perspective. And I admit, i have much to learn 😀
And I suddenly wonder, what will become of our Tourism Minister, Azalina Othman when they enforced the fatwa? Will she be turned into an ultimate xmas tree?
“No religion promotes war and disrespect towards one another, it’s human that uses religion’s name in vain to violate one another and in the process, destroy each other’s civilization and take away many innocent lives in the process.”
I like how you write that down, though somehow people often missed that or choose to ignore that.
I agree to the part where people who prayed 5 times a day feel very convinced that they’ll be going for a good afterlife soon, get all conceity and superior. They seem to forget that being conceited and superior has nullified the good deeds (praying) they do. It’s not as easy as pray “5 times a day and voila heaven is for you”. There’s still a lot more, they need to learn more, unfortunately I have to say so that even a lot of Muslims haven’t understand Holy Quran thoroughly.
That is why, ‘A little knowledge is dangerous’ (Alexander Pope: An Essay on Criticism, 1709)
Kilmytatiana, wow, you have a cool name. Thank you for visiting my humble blog and leaving me a comment here. I really appreciate it. LOL… people dun missed it, actually, they simply choose to ignore what they refused to listen. What I could not understand was why they are so convinced that they are guaranteed heaven in afterlife? If you pray 5 times a day and yet do so many other things to hurt people, are you still guaranteed heaven in afterlife? Look at the Bali bombers. They prayed 5 times a day without failed, and yet they did extreme things- they bomb people and killed the innocent in the quest for spreading their faith. Killing people is already an unredeemable sin, in my opinion. I’ve always believed that you cannot make people believe what they do not believe through violence and force. People will shun the action instead. Always have and always will be.
Why do a lot of Muslim do not understand Quran? It’s not because they are stupid, but they are reading it in a language that they could not understand. To understand the Holy Quran, I am convinced that you must learn the language first, or else just by reading it without understanding anything is like reading an alien language, admiring it, and yet could not understand a word the writing is saying. The thing with people is, they refused to read the translation, feeling that reading the translation is beneath them…feeling that the translation are wrong and misleading, yet refused to learn the language to understand what’s written fully… I dunno, this is just my two pence worth of thought.
I agreed all religions are beautiful, in fact, they could have come from the same source. It’s just that human beings trying to make use of religion for gains and some followers keep up the practice until they though this is the ‘truth’.
Chris, that’s what I always believed too…people are just using religion to their own benefit and satisfaction, if not for feeding their bloody ego!
Hi Cleff, pls check my blog later in the day, i have tagged you, somebody tagged me, so i obliged,kind of cool to do it, but i guess once is fun.
please do likewise, ya?
God doesnt speak to all… except to the “annointed” few. However, ppl can fake being annointed and many ppl are fooled by these “annointed” ppl. Ain’t the world a colorful place?
As i watch the youtube video at above, i feel that lady realy have a guts to said out that she is not a Muslim. (i tot every arabs are muslims??) and it seems that iman is really piss off.
any way, just like the lady in the video said, who the heck give them the right to condemn to those who are not belive to islam??
Eugene… ohh, I will check it out later in the day when I’m off from work… ahahaha… 😀
Kevin, and i wonder why God only choose some people to ‘talk’ to. When I was younger, I always ask that question to my parents, and I got no answer for it til tis very day. All I was told was “shut up”.
Isley, that’s where you’re wrong. Not all Arabs are Muslim, and not all Muslims are Arabs. We only believe so because that is the perception that certain parties would like to have us believe. In Malaysia, we’d believe that all Malays are Muslim, but…who had us believe in such thing in the first place? Anyway, in most countries, you are free to choose your own religion. In Malaysia, if you’re born Malay, then you are classified as Islam. Yeah, I feel that the lady in the vid really have guts, and fierce too. She’s right, who gives others rights to condemn those who do not believe in what they believed?
its very true that people obscenely abused religion as an item for war. and i respect people like the lady who firmly stands and believes in what she say. it makes so much sense. is there a continuation on the episode. i wanna see what the imam say after that. excellent post clef. i enjoyed it very much.
Calvin, yalorr. Religion are beautiful, men are the ones that makes it ugly and evil. Actually, if not because Malaysia lacked freedom of expression on that matter, I would be like that lady too. *snarl*
I’m not sure if there’s continuation on the vid though… LOL… 😛
I have been campaining for Syed Hamid to take the “Minister of the year award” , first price to Jalan Alor for dinner and then to Chow Kit for ‘fun’.
I just found a piece in Mahaguru 58 that solutes the Bali bombers. I gave him my piece but i think that he will not publish it. And he tries to justify their actions on religion. Something like this la.
Why can’t we have peace?
Amoker, I just checked your comment page, apparently, Mahaguru58 had replied to your concerns, and he said that the posting is a mistake. I would give a piece of my mind if I saw it too. I never condone killings in the name of religion. Nothing could justify such massacre. But for now, I’m looking forward to what he will say to you. If he email you regarding to this matter, could you er… update me on this? Let me kaypo abit. LOL.
Hmm… does the Syed need sms vote? let me know, k? LMAO…I also want him to win the award. HOHOHOHO.