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If it’s one thing we Muslims can be counted on, it’s to whine and complain when the right cues are given. ‘Insulting Islam’, ‘provoking Islam’, ‘demeaning Islam’ and a myriad of other chants will be yelled out. Some embassies may be burnt, possibly some churches and some people will be injured or even killed.
On Easter Sunday, Pope Benedict, he of the famous non-sequitur comment about Islam, baptised Magdi Allam a convert to Catholicism from Islam. Naturally, there were criticisms from the Italian Muslims about insensitive timing of the incident. The Vatican of course denied that this was an attempt to offend the Muslims. Unsurprisingly, today a few Muslim voices has already spoken up against the event. One such voice was Aref Ali Nayed, a key figure amongst 200 scholars who are engaging Christians in a dialogue called it ‘triumphalist tool for scoring points’. Well of course it was just that. Duh. But Mr Nayed, are you telling me Muslims don’t do this? Please wake up, sir. Google ‘converts to islam’ and you will see the thousands of websites dedicated to displaying conversions to Islam. My dear fellow Muslims, are you guys not also proudly claiming that ‘Islam is the fastest growing religion’ (forgetting about the huge number of children Muslims tend to have, by the way) and that former Roman Catholic priest Benjamin Keldani who wrote ‘Muhammad in the Bible’ converted to Islam? In Malaysia, it’s even worse. Muslims regularly publish stories of converts to Islam without any care about the feelings of their fellow Malaysians. These converts extol the virtues of Islam and decry the ‘darkness’ of other religions. I’ve even seen the newspapers stories of mass conversions alongside mass marriages of those converts. Do Malaysians Muslims think this doesn’t offend their fellow Malaysians? But if the shoe was on the other foot, like with this incident above, we might find Muslims who won’t know the difference between Pope Benedict and Dirk Benedict coming out into the streets, hoping to defend the ‘dignity of islam’. I wish they would turn their anger towards the gangsters and rapists in their communities. That would at least bring some positive change. This ‘conversion syndrome’ is a thing with both Muslims and Christians. Both parties love to talk about converts to their particular religions. In my experience, the one thing which sets them apart though, is the dignity of the manner which the Christians display and the Muslims tend not to. Muslims, when they hear of Muslims leaving Islam, have rarely shown the same kind of consideration and compassion towards the individual converting from Islam. We seldom hear of them saying ‘well, its his God given choice’ but instead we hear things like ‘this is a conspiracy’ or ‘if shariah law was in place, he’d be executed’ (proving that sharia law is against the Quran). Certain parties in the world know well this knee-jerk reaction by the Muslims. They count on this reaction to periodically make world think that Muslims are savages. The Muslims who do show any kind of understanding and compassion (take a look at this website) tend not to be given the space in those media streams to defend Islam from these misperceptions. Of course, the fact that there are thousands of Muslims who will emote at the drop of a hat when shown these events doesn’t help either. I wish we could wake up to a world in which when an event such as this happens and all the Muslims carry themselves with great dignity and compassion that these media streams have no choice but to report that ‘Muslims are happy for apostate, wish him a lifetime of happiness’. This is the reaction which the Prophet followed, if we believe in the Quran. However, this is a world which is at present, far off in the distance. Farouk A. Peru www.peru.name
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"Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith." (The Heifer: v. 286)
Prefer to work hard now on PAS to drop Apostasy law in Kelantan, followed by Selangor, Kedah, Perak...... we have problems in Malaysia, no need to Kay Poh / busybody overseas!!
Freedom to choose a Religion is mandated by GOD. How can lowly mankind decide it to be otherwise?? Unless you are God/Allah, do not hide behind your tradition or teaching to display your Bigotary Prejudice!!