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IT SEEMS like Herald has done it again. A publication of any sort should carry headlines, but Herald has managed to become the headline quite often in rec-ent times. First, there was the legal challenge on the usage of the proper term to refer to the Almighty. Now, it has been issued a show-cause letter for publishing political editorials.
Like all lawyers are wont to do, let me start by stating some disclaimers. One, I have not read Herald, because it is distributed among Catholics and I am not one. Secondly, I am as far away from being an Islamophobe as you can be. On the contrary I would consider myself to be a thinking Islamophilic. Thirdly, I believe that each and every person should relate to God within the context of his or her God-given families and communities. The disclaimers are necessary in the light of certain sections of our society who tend to hijack any discussion on faith and religion by way of violent protests and demonstrations. The authorities then respond by telling everyone to keep quiet in order to preserve the harmony of society, however faked that may be. Unfortunately, the only voices which heed the authorities’ advice are the moderate ones. Extremists are willing to suffer and die for their views, and hence can never be cowed into silence. But if I am not a Catholic, why should I be interested in issues surrounding Herald? I am interested because I am a believer. I believe in Almighty God. I do address Him using a term forbidden by the authorities, but I won’t go into that issue in this forum. I try to be a man of faith. I am interested in relating to God. More than that, I am not only deistic but also fideistic. That means God is not only a vague concept, a divine being who exists somewhere out there in the universe. God is neither a notion nor a thesis. Incredibly, and mysteriously, somehow the Almighty God of the universe, the Lord of all the worlds, is also intricately and intimately interested in intervening in my life. Cold scientific facts can deduce the existence of God. However, God cannot be proven by science alone. That is where faith comes into the picture. Faith is the conviction of things hoped for, the assurance of things not seen. Men and women of faith who seek to relate to God need to first believe that God exists, and that He is a rewarder of all who diligently seek Him. This brings us to the statements warning Herald that it is in breach of its publishing permit conditions which allow it to publish articles of religion and not of politics. Specifically, the home minister has been quoted to say that religion and politics should never mix. Really now, is this consistent with a life of faith? Can religion truly be limited to processes, procedures and endless meetings? Are we really made acceptable to God simply by going through certain rituals? Is the Almighty so easily fooled by religiosity, and is He so easily satisfied by ritualistic performances? It seems to me, based on my very limited understanding of Islam, that the proposition goes against the very crux of the minister’s faith. Is not Islam Deen al-Haq – the true way of life? Is life not lived beyond the walls of religious institutions? Is life not richer than the richest religious traditions? And if all that is true, can faith ever be compartmentalised into religious and non-religious segments? I am privileged to count myself as a friend of good Muslims. I have a colleague and partner who is diligently religious, and whose religion permeates every aspect of her life. For people like her, I know that to the best of her ability, her life and work is ibadah. And that really is the point of faith, isn’t it? If faith is limited to religious rituals, we will all be damned. After all, who can honestly say that he has fulfilled every injunction of his faith to the minutest detail? Who among us have not fallen short of the lofty standards in whichever holy book we hold dear? But if faith is the realisation that there is an Almighty God who is interested in our lives, and that the only proper response is for us to surrender the entirety of our lives to Him, then it becomes a glorious journey in which the riches and knowledge of the Almighty God is slowly unravelled as we continue to respond in obedience to Him. How wondrously rich we would be if we find fullness of life in the course of that journey. How pathetically poor we end up when we try to compartmentalise our faith, and confine God to the Holy of Holies. by Chan Kheng Hoe, The Sun Kheng Hoe hopes to compartmentalise his job and confine it to a strict 9 to 7 regime if possible. Thus far, he has fallen short even of this not-so-lofty standard.
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I am not an extremist but a moderate in religious matters. However, I am an extremist when it comes to civil rights like freedom to practise whichever religion in the way you see fit, freedom of speech with Truth as the guide, democratic freedom and so on. Give me freedom or give me death !