New Low
How low can Malaysia get? The spat of church bombings over the use of "Allah" is the new low. In fact, this incident has causes many media and citizens to use the word "Allah". If there is any abuse of that word, it's what this incident is causing.
Many Malaysians knew this are politically motivated. If it is not the race card, it is the religion card. What else is new in this country?
I find this blog from Marina Mahatir pretty interesting..
In 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery came to Prophet Muhammed and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of rights, which I reproduce below in its entirety. St. Catherine’s Monastery is located at the foot of Mt. Sinai and is the world’s oldest monastery. It possesses a huge collection of Christian manuscripts, second only to the Vatican, and is a world heritage site. It also boasts the oldest collection of Christian icons. It is a treasure house of Christian history that has remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection.
An excerpt from the blog:
Many Malaysians knew this are politically motivated. If it is not the race card, it is the religion card. What else is new in this country?
I find this blog from Marina Mahatir pretty interesting..
In 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery came to Prophet Muhammed and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of rights, which I reproduce below in its entirety. St. Catherine’s Monastery is located at the foot of Mt. Sinai and is the world’s oldest monastery. It possesses a huge collection of Christian manuscripts, second only to the Vatican, and is a world heritage site. It also boasts the oldest collection of Christian icons. It is a treasure house of Christian history that has remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection.
An excerpt from the blog:
The Promise to St. Catherine:
"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."
"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."
Interesting read, eh?
Aside from the obvious instructions to protect the Christians, I find it interesting to read that you don't need to convert to Muslim to marry a Muslim(!). This is news to me and it looks like what I was told all along are lies by Malaysia government. These are Malaysia Muslims definition, not Muslim in general definitely not the teachings of Prophet Muhammad. Looks like there are many people in Malaysia who will burn in hell for twisting the teachings.
Malaysia Boleh indeed!
Malaysia Boleh indeed!
sedih sedih lah... aiii..
ReplyDeleteindeed, that was one of the reason I was so jetlag after visited Turkey. Coz they are 99% muslim country and yet I so wish I am staying there, I like the men there - haaaa....today was sad with all the bombs. The point is not about the usage of 'a' word only...if we give in, then in future, most likely sth happened said no church on sunday etc etc etc , or cannot use 'G' word pula.... East Msians use A word all their lives , so now when they come to Penusular Msia , they must remember to change A to others... tonight my church prayer meeting is super full, we walked in sad, sad for being msian, sad for our country....but Praise God, we left home with hope, with peace and happily - coz despite all the negative things happening, there are also good things happening ...eg, muslim community donated money and help the burned down church - that is how it should be.
ReplyDeleteMarina is sooooo diff than her other family members, her articles are well written and thought off...I salute her, she needs to collect more good points for her dad who have done way too many damages ....
ReplyDeletei totally agree bahija.. it ain't about the word. Its about tolerance and how far they would go. Today is a word, tomorrow maybe something else... then in the future.. who knows...
ReplyDeleteMy colleagues told me not to go to church this weekend. Stay home , u can pray from wherever , it don't matter.
My reply to them is.. i will go its my right to practice my faith.
I say in the face of adversity Stand tall.
MG, I am proud of you. You stand tall in front of adversity. On Friday, a Christian friend of mine received an SMS that people are smashing cars with cross on it. My colleague was so scared she removed the rosary beads from her car.
ReplyDeleteMy sister thinks that these SMSes are started by the telco company to make money because they know people will fwd the SMSes.
about the sms , first thing we entered our church, pastor prayed 'wisdom' for us , he wants his members to use brain, and to practise wisdom in our daily conduct...specifically things like those sms, we are not to believe blindly and forward sekali. Usually we are surrounded with 'negative' news, negative words , from the day I returned from Turkey, my morning newspaper full with negative news such as 10 people killed in Sani bus , Thai forensic being investigated etc etc...contagious poisons
ReplyDelete2010 friday night , my first prayer meeting was one of the best, simply because pastor used positive words, said positive things, supplied good vitamins for my soul, my brain - which I realized I needed them so much :)
Don't under-estimate the power of using good words , saying things positively and thinking positively