We are not retards.

I'm terrified of fundamentalists. Because they go by a 'it's my way or the highway' principle. That makes them terribly difficult people to deal with. Now, putting my declaration here in context, I have to quote Bukan Islam Liberal:

What kind of retard would ever consider such a religion and embrace it as their way of life, to the extent that they are willing to leave the beautiful ad-Deen which is Islam for the reckless pursuits of a man-made religion?

I am deeply insulted, because by your definitions and quotes, I am your kind of retard who has embraced the reckless pursuits of a man-made religion.

Bad enough that the whole Lina Joy issue has escalated to such heights, today some people have gone straight to the police and prosecuted the entire church in the process. Seeking Justice, they call it.

In the process, seeking justice also has to include the name calling. 'Religion of retards', 'agama dongengan'.

On Your Labels

This is my blog and I will say this here now:

WE ARE NOT RETARDS.

CHRISTIANITY is NOT an AGAMA DONGENGAN.

I'M A 6TH GENERATION MALAYSIAN CHINESE AND I AM EVERY BIT AS MALAYSIAN AS YOU ARE, EVEN THOUGH OUR SKIN COLOUR AND OUR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ARE IN CONTRADICTION WITH EACH OTHER.

I don't understand why you're so generous with your vicious labels. Maybe somewhere in your history of being in this fallen world, someone came into your life and taught you that being prominently opinionated and dogmatic about your principles in living life by God are important and necessary steps to future seal your place in your Paradise.

Or maybe you're scared that Your God thinks you're an infidel just for being polite to people who do not think the same as you do. Maybe you need to show-off the the physical bits of being religious so that you will not be accused as being untrue to your religion. Maybe you need to label believers among your own religion with blasphemous words, so that God will take notice of you and grant you favours. Maybe you feel that you have a duty on earth and right now your special duty is to ensure that people who misunderstand Islam get their facts right. Your way.

I suppose people like you would have your reasons for behaving like such ignorant, unyielding blockheads. In your book, we're the crazy ones, the ones who don't get what it's supposed to be like. So you guys say, 'Go ahead, its not your concern, this is our call, stay out.'

Usually, I shut up because I choose to respect your principle. It's simple, almost acceptable, even if its tinged with lunacy. Your life, your choices, the way you choose to practise your beliefs, has nothing to do with me, and rest assured I am not about to tamper in your life. I strongly believe that you have a right to behave the way you want to behave.

But I CANNOT just sit and accept when you heap slander on my beliefs, my rights, my community, MY COUNTRY.

On Conversion

Many families have had to suffer the 'shame' of having family members choosing a religion that is not of the handed-down type. Every time someone chooses to convert, he makes a difficult decisionthat will inevitably affect the people around him. All converts to any religion would have felt this 'persecution', and the whole conversion process is a painful but necessary process, because they come with unneeded, illogical accusations, words like

'You are displeasing the family by doing this. I have brought you up so many years and now you won't choose to worship a foreign God. YOU ARE BOUND FOR HELL.'

Yet people choose to go through it, after long thought, and that alone is something respectable, and admirable. Because the fact is, the decision to leave a religion is NOT a simple one. Conversion bukanlah sesuatu yang patut dimaki.

Religion has been and always will be a sensitive matter. The struggles we all choose to take in faith are difficult ones, each requiring far more than combinations of responsibility, commitment and dedication. Every believer has his own story of his journey in faith.

In all our stories, we all share the same episode, the one where we have to deal with the sticky situation of being questioned by KPC idiots. Whether you are Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Islam or Atheist for that matter, you will, at least once in your life, have to face someone who is opposed to your beliefs (or the way you practise your beliefs), and that same someone will take it upon himself to teach you 'the right way'.

For me, a brother in Christ told me that 'Yoga' is unChristian, and that I should renounce it, in order to maintain my hold on God and to stay true to His path. A Taoist friend of mine who is dating a Muslim boyfriend has had to deal with persecution from strangers who have all started to care about what happens to her, her family and her offspring if she chooses to marry him. Another Buddhist acquaintance was chided by members of his temple association because he did not contribute enough to the temple fund. I had a Christian friend who was thrown out of his Hindu family just because he chose to believe in Jesus Christ. Kay poh chis, people who require you behave like them or else burn in their version of hell, coming into our lives and giving us a piece of their mind, on the same pretext that 'We care for you, we want you to do it right.' .

All these are real-life experiences that have happened to more than one person in this country. For some people, they get it worse than we do, so bad it's almost traumatic. For them, they get hordes of caring strangers barging into their lives, wanting a piece of the decision making power, and calling out God's name in the process of unlawful intervention. They go to extreme measures, like reporting a place of worship to the police just because it allowed the baptism of an apostate from a religion. Never mind that all that showcase of care and concern was unwelcome in the first place, these people just have to make their point shown you see. The concept of 'Personal Space' simply means nothing to them.

Maybe it's part-and-parcel of what makes Malaysians so 'caring' towards each other.

Ideally, we ought to applaud the intensity of this mob reaction, this united show of 'we-care'. Unfortunately, in some cases, I wish our countrymen knew how to adopt the tidak-apa attitude. See, being tidak-apa is one of the greatest sins of Malaysians. Why, just yesterday morning Mix FM DJs Richard and Ika were lamenting on how Malaysians generally are so tidak-apa about the state of our environment. Leatherback turtles are almost extinct and you see still idiots dumping used plastic bags into the sea.

But, damn it Richard and Ika you guys are wrong. Malaysians are selectively tidak-apa you know? Environment matters? Eh nothing concerning them, so they'll just leave it be. Not even the fact that God entrusted this earth to us to care and cherish and protect will divert their attention to what matters, so the rubbish keeps piling up, the earth can die for all they care.

Instead, what now matters is not the environment, but how another single human being chooses to practise his beliefs. The scenario is this: Who is this Lina Joy? I don't know her personally, but she's making a terrible mistake. I don't want her to go to hell, I'm protecting her and the sovereignity of my religion/race. I'm going to speak up, I'll rally supporters and we will show it to them. Don't mess with us, we have been silent for too long. Someone else has deviated from the true path, hmmm yes this is trespassing into my territory. Does it matter that I should check on my own journey first? No, I want to show I care. We'll throw her out, yes.

Well, 'throwing her out' that's almost fair and dandy, technically, if you follow strictly to the tenets of religion. There was some logicality to the initial outcry, until they went too far and brought it to the police, for God's sake (pun intended), until they started to confuse citizenship rights, racial differences, religious superiority. They went overboard.

On Freedom of Expression

What I'm saying here is, I do respect all the vocal expressions, the speaking up and the open discussion and declarations of love for one's God. This open outcry is phenomenal and by all means we should celebrate this development in free speech. And I can understand the emotional outbreaks, if I were in your shoes, when the status and dignity of my religion is at stake, of course, it's terribly passive to just sit down and shut up? I would choose not to take the tidak-apa road. Yet I would understand and know where to draw the line.

Instead, in your fervour to fight for your rights and requirements, you people come out in your throngs and call believers of Christ 'Retards' and that the religion is an 'Agama Dongengan', you guys pull in race and skin colour into your fight (for God-knows-what), you people keep reminding us that UNFORTUNATELY we're but second-class citizens because we are outnumbered. In doing all these you guys have gone too far, and I CANNOT shut up even if I am a minority, because being minority does not mean you will bully me at will.

So you can applaud all you want the apparent 'failure' of the Article 11 Coalition. You can say that the forums have disappeared and the formations of your forums to oppose this freedom of interfaith discussions in the country are great victories in the name of your God, and maybe, just maybe, we will sit in silence and watch and listen, maybe it is to your pleasure that we behave like meek rabbits in a cage.

But please, do not take it too far. AS FAR AS PEOPLE WILL NOT INSULT YOUR RELIGION, DON'T DO THE SAME UNTO OTHERS, UNTO YOUR FELLOW COUNTRYMEN, WHETHER OR NOT WE ARE OUTNUMBERED.

Do not call us retards, or say that we believe in a fairy tale religion, DO NOT LABEL US as 'YOUR KIND'. Whether you like it or not, we are Malaysians too, and we love this country every bit as much as you do, if not more.

To the person who wrote this line in her statements, 'In any case, as much as YOU have the right to this country, remember, Malaysia is not a Western or Christian country. Your parents or great grandparents moved here knowing that this is a Muslim country and should already know what is in store for them. You got what you bargained (or bought) for.'

I'm not crying foul for being born Malaysian. Please do not confuse the issue. Have you no sense of respect? And when my forefathers set foot and decided to make Malaysia home, there wasn't this issue of which religious group has a bigger stake of ownership in the country. Sure, our land is not-a-free-for-all kind of country, but neither is there a stamp that says 'Muslims' only.

And even if Malaysia is a Muslim country as labelled by you, She is still part of planet Earth, and as citizens of this world it is a requirement of us human beings to accept everybody's differences and strive to live in harmony no matter how difficult tolerating other people's opinions can get.

Congratulations, dudes

Because it seems to matter so much to you, that physical trophy, I'll oblige and congratulate you. Go ahead and claim your glory, now that you are so-called wielding your torch of victory. I'll just leave you with this: You can put a man behind bars, but you cannot change what is in his heart, his mind or his soul. That will always belong to him and him alone.