A reaction
I am supposed to be doing my project or mug for my O&G posting that is round the corner. But I don’t know, it seems like I have things or issues to talk about. Nah…. not relationship stuff. I love my girlfriend so very the much! But stuff that people take for granted.
Like for instance nowadays it seems so hard for Muslim to be a Muslim without being subjected to scrutiny and pre-judgment. It also seems that those who are not muslims perceive muslims to be people who carry guns, have their own weird beliefs, have 4 wives and 16 children who are brats and will grow up to be terrorists and give birth to 16 more. Those culpable are not inclusive nor are they exclusive; I am just drawing a picture of what I see in general. The questions I get from friends, the news I see on BBC, CNN, CAN etc, and the evidence of acts of my fellow (under)-educated Singaporeans. More so this is MY reaction to the recent local misappropriation of the so-called notion of freedom of speech of the cyber world that we assumed to be legislatively immune!
Sometimes remarks made do not actually reflect the actual situation nor does it satisfy the requirements of a coherent balance remark as always the case with anything meaning, it doesn’t include the “that being said…..” part!
So this doesn’t have to be about religion or a focus on Muslims alone, but I think the universal worldview of Islam and Muslims among non-muslims (unless of course you are Osama bin Laden or Mr. Al-Zarqawi) is that through the distorted lens of terrorism. People choose to look at the abnormalities in the society and not the normal majority. But somehow for Islam this vulnerability that it is being subjected to seems to stem from this phenomena of representation. Ok what the hell am I talking about right? Representation? In a way, Muslims seem to represent Islam more when the minority misuse it, so called in the name of Allah. This is in contrast to the Ireland’s IRA or the Sri Lankan Tamil tigers. Their profile is definitely religious, Catholics and Hindus, but what makes them different from us Muslims. Why is it that we are subjected to more discrimination, more media attention etc? All three have a common struggle but what is it. For the Catholics and Hindus above, theirs are that of nationalism. Eh? So you mean those Muslims are not for political struggles also? Answer: depends on geopolitics. However sadly to say, differential distinct geopolitical profile has turned or worse transformed into a generalized universality, that would be difficult to change. The struggles of Osama and JI terrorists are self-proclaimed to be a JIHAD for Muslims in the name of God. And the world knows about it when bombs go off and those responsible raise their voices to announce their atrocious acts that they deem worthy of martyrdom. And they speak on behalf of us.
That is why the majority moderate Muslims are encouraged to speak out against such atrocious acts. These are one of those times where passivity means we agree or approve or worse we become passive accomplices in the cause of these minority bigots. However that said (note this usage) there are Muslims who believe that there is no point in speaking up. The local newspaper columnist Asad Latif mentioned in his address at the Muslim Convert’s Association early this year in his analysis which I quote,” familiar argument…no need to be apologetic about terrorism by Muslims when other faith communities have not cried themselves hoarse over terrorist attacks carried out by the IRA or Tamil Tigers.”
But he also rightly counter-argued this comment by saying that the reason why other communities are not speaking is they know the reason behind these atrocities, which are politically driven rather than religiously motivated. So I guess unless a Muslim thinks and agrees that the what the Al-Qaeda says about themselves struggle in the name of God, then I guess Muslims MUST speak up against. Similarly, in the case of blog bigotry, I guess we too, should speak up, so that we can help clarify and educate.
At the end of it, I do belief that no one is born a terrorist nor intolerant. These are inculcated values and attributes that are seeded, grow and ingrained over years of indoctrination. It does not cultivate in a vacuum. So yah maybe the problem is with the identification of ROOT causes. Just like medicine, to treat someone is to offer him symptomatic treatment, to CURE him is to identify the root cause and treat appropriately. This applied; it is not esoteric or complicated to try to identify the root problem as to their actions. To give an example, some time in May or June this year, there was the Saudi American Embassy bombings. Why would they want to bomb a group of Americans who are helping the country build up their oil industry? What have these foreigners done? Could there be a political motive behind these attacks or is it REALLY a problem of religious intolerance? Even so that doesn’t quantify as a religious cause for the simple reason that religious education or education for that fact aims to produce people who are ultimately wise and tolerant. Otherwise, it would be the antithesis of its objective!
What I am trying to say is that Islam should not be used as a means to rationalize terrorist acts. And Muslims, as individuals and as members of the global community, are humans too. We embrace the values of compassion, neighborliness, justice, we listen to music too be it Bach, Vivaldi, we study 16th century English literature seriously too, we grow in peace, work, go to bed at night, eat and play. Muslims also think.
Finally Mr. Latif says at the end of the speech which I summaries my long windedness, “...there are causes and there is terrorism. What I am saying is that Islam should not be used to link the two.”
Like for instance nowadays it seems so hard for Muslim to be a Muslim without being subjected to scrutiny and pre-judgment. It also seems that those who are not muslims perceive muslims to be people who carry guns, have their own weird beliefs, have 4 wives and 16 children who are brats and will grow up to be terrorists and give birth to 16 more. Those culpable are not inclusive nor are they exclusive; I am just drawing a picture of what I see in general. The questions I get from friends, the news I see on BBC, CNN, CAN etc, and the evidence of acts of my fellow (under)-educated Singaporeans. More so this is MY reaction to the recent local misappropriation of the so-called notion of freedom of speech of the cyber world that we assumed to be legislatively immune!
Sometimes remarks made do not actually reflect the actual situation nor does it satisfy the requirements of a coherent balance remark as always the case with anything meaning, it doesn’t include the “that being said…..” part!
So this doesn’t have to be about religion or a focus on Muslims alone, but I think the universal worldview of Islam and Muslims among non-muslims (unless of course you are Osama bin Laden or Mr. Al-Zarqawi) is that through the distorted lens of terrorism. People choose to look at the abnormalities in the society and not the normal majority. But somehow for Islam this vulnerability that it is being subjected to seems to stem from this phenomena of representation. Ok what the hell am I talking about right? Representation? In a way, Muslims seem to represent Islam more when the minority misuse it, so called in the name of Allah. This is in contrast to the Ireland’s IRA or the Sri Lankan Tamil tigers. Their profile is definitely religious, Catholics and Hindus, but what makes them different from us Muslims. Why is it that we are subjected to more discrimination, more media attention etc? All three have a common struggle but what is it. For the Catholics and Hindus above, theirs are that of nationalism. Eh? So you mean those Muslims are not for political struggles also? Answer: depends on geopolitics. However sadly to say, differential distinct geopolitical profile has turned or worse transformed into a generalized universality, that would be difficult to change. The struggles of Osama and JI terrorists are self-proclaimed to be a JIHAD for Muslims in the name of God. And the world knows about it when bombs go off and those responsible raise their voices to announce their atrocious acts that they deem worthy of martyrdom. And they speak on behalf of us.
That is why the majority moderate Muslims are encouraged to speak out against such atrocious acts. These are one of those times where passivity means we agree or approve or worse we become passive accomplices in the cause of these minority bigots. However that said (note this usage) there are Muslims who believe that there is no point in speaking up. The local newspaper columnist Asad Latif mentioned in his address at the Muslim Convert’s Association early this year in his analysis which I quote,” familiar argument…no need to be apologetic about terrorism by Muslims when other faith communities have not cried themselves hoarse over terrorist attacks carried out by the IRA or Tamil Tigers.”
But he also rightly counter-argued this comment by saying that the reason why other communities are not speaking is they know the reason behind these atrocities, which are politically driven rather than religiously motivated. So I guess unless a Muslim thinks and agrees that the what the Al-Qaeda says about themselves struggle in the name of God, then I guess Muslims MUST speak up against. Similarly, in the case of blog bigotry, I guess we too, should speak up, so that we can help clarify and educate.
At the end of it, I do belief that no one is born a terrorist nor intolerant. These are inculcated values and attributes that are seeded, grow and ingrained over years of indoctrination. It does not cultivate in a vacuum. So yah maybe the problem is with the identification of ROOT causes. Just like medicine, to treat someone is to offer him symptomatic treatment, to CURE him is to identify the root cause and treat appropriately. This applied; it is not esoteric or complicated to try to identify the root problem as to their actions. To give an example, some time in May or June this year, there was the Saudi American Embassy bombings. Why would they want to bomb a group of Americans who are helping the country build up their oil industry? What have these foreigners done? Could there be a political motive behind these attacks or is it REALLY a problem of religious intolerance? Even so that doesn’t quantify as a religious cause for the simple reason that religious education or education for that fact aims to produce people who are ultimately wise and tolerant. Otherwise, it would be the antithesis of its objective!
What I am trying to say is that Islam should not be used as a means to rationalize terrorist acts. And Muslims, as individuals and as members of the global community, are humans too. We embrace the values of compassion, neighborliness, justice, we listen to music too be it Bach, Vivaldi, we study 16th century English literature seriously too, we grow in peace, work, go to bed at night, eat and play. Muslims also think.
Finally Mr. Latif says at the end of the speech which I summaries my long windedness, “...there are causes and there is terrorism. What I am saying is that Islam should not be used to link the two.”
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