The Cancer Of Religious Violence
Almost 40 years of religious indoctrination in Malaysia is seeing some sections (not all - thank Allah swt) of our society suffering the Stage 4 Cancer of violent religion.
What is the great danger posed by religion?
ALL religions.
The answer is violence.
At some point all religions either teach, lead or cause their followers to kill humans.
If you do not believe me please ask Google.
Killing in the name of religion is as old as religion.
No Proof For What They Say
There is an extremely simple reason why religions resort to violence.
Religions have absolutely no proof for what they say.
No evidence, no scientific reasoning, nothing.
Religion is purely belief.
Either you believe or not.
Either you believe that your god was born at that spot or you do not believe.
Either you believe that your religious hero could magically fly through the night sky or you don't believe so.
Either you believe that your god is above all other gods or you don't believe so.
And so on.
There is no logic or scientific evidence.
Hence the very frequently repeated saying 'kita tidak boleh gunakan akal dalam hal agama'. 'We cannot use our brains (logic) in religious matters'.
This is in direct contradiction to what the Quran says :
"Allah will cast doubts / abomination on those who do not use their logic (akal)" - Surah 10:100.
So the Quran demands that we must use our logic and common sense (akal).
But logic, common sense and thinking is anathema to religion.
Anathema means "enemy no. 1".
No Original Historical Documents
Then there is the serious problem of NO ORIGINAL VERIFIABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS.
For example among the sunnis they say that a fellow called Ibn Hisham (died 833 AD) "edited" and produced the first biography of the prophet. 833 AD is 200 years after the prophet is said to have died.
But Ibn Hisham was not the original author. Ibn Hisham is said to have "edited" what was written (about the prophet's life) by another fellow called Ibn Ishak. This Ibn Ishak died in 767 AD (so they say). That is more than 100 years after the death of the prophet.
Now here is the catch - both the original writings of Ibn Ishak and Ibn Hisham do not exist. Hence there are variations in the Seerah or biography of the prophet attributed to Ibn Hisham and Ibn Ishak.
And sometimes they never existed at all in a fully completed form. For example the famous Bukhari never left behind a fully completed book of his collections of narratives. There was no such thing even to begin with.
It was latter day writers who came along and "edited", "redacted", "put together", "compiled" etc what they thought were the writings of Ibn Ishak, Ibn Hisham, Bukhari etc.
One more example is the famous book Al Muwatta.
Who is the real author of this book?
Although it is attributed to Malik bin Anas (the precursor of the Maliki subsect) but the religious folks say (bukan saya cakap tau) there are at least 27 different versions of this book known to them. People can undertake Masters and PhDs, to research which version of the Muwatta is the most authentic or how much one version is different from another version.
The problem is the original book Al Muwatta is not available anywhere. There is no historical evidence or documentary evidence to tell us what was the form or shape of the very first original version of the Al Muwatta. We just do not know.
Yet tens or maybe hundreds of millions of Muslims belong to the Maliki sub-sect - which is one of the FOUR major sub-sects among the larger sect of Ahlul Sunnah.
One of the other large sub-sects among the sunnis are the Hanafis - the subsect that I was born into.
Over 800 million sunnis in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan (including Taliban), Turkey, large parts of Egypt, majority of Central Asia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Russia, Bosnia, Poland, Albania, Rumania etc belong to the Hanafi subsect.
Yet there is no single book that can be attributed directly to the hands of Abu Hanifa (the precursor of Hanafism) that exists. Or ever existed. It was the latter day writers of Hanafism who started to write books about their sub-sect. And of course they attributed their own writings to the now generic "Hanafi school".
So there are NO original writings of these ancient writers and many, many more others like them.
What they have are writings by other people, who came along much later, who wrote down what they thought, in their best opinion, were the teachings of these other earlier people.
So there are NO original historical records or original historical writings.
(On the other hand there are hand written copies of the Quran that go back as far as the 7th and 8th centuries - which is good enough for me. Please go to this site http://www.oldest.org/religion/qurans for a quick history of the seven oldest known Quran. Their contents are the same. Who exactly penned these copies? We do not know. But they exist and the contents are the same.)
Coming back to the sects, that is why there are so many different subsects, sects, schools of thought etc all of which exist because they cannot agree on what exactly is the correct version of their religious beliefs.
The sunnis do not agree with the shias, the salafis do not agree with the sunnis, the sufis do not agree with everyone else etc. Because no one has real, solid evidence for what they say.
This has been going on for over 1000 years and it will most likely never be resolved.
Is this going to keep happening? Will shias, ahmadiyas etc be permanently outlawed in Malaysia? Will the religious authorities in Malaysia continue to arrest writers, book shop workers, girls who do not wear tudung, Muslim girls who rear dogs, Muslim students who debate religion etc?
In Mecca all the sects - sunni, shia, salafi, wahabi, ahmadiya perform the pilgrimage together. Not only that but they say assalamu alaikum to each other, they stand in prayer beside each other, their food is halal for each other and they can marry women from any sect (that part is always halal).
How come? Can anyone from these different sects explain this?
But the moment they go back to their own countries - they kill each other.
The Need For The Use Of Force
Which is why religion can only exist (or maintain its dominance in a multi cultural strata) through the use of physical force or some other form of coercion. There has to be some form of coercion.
This force / coercion can be either through mob rule (villagers from different sects simply kill each other) or through the enforcement powers of the state (the religious enactments and religious laws, fatwas, shariah courts, the religious police, moral policing etc).
This is exactly the situation here in Malaysia. Thus far religious enforcement was done through the formal, legally constituted powers of the state (Jakim, jabatan agama, muftis, shariah criminal enactments etc).
But for the first time ever in the case of Amri Che Mat, Pastor Koh, Helmy and his wife Ruth plus one other person, the "lynching by street mobs" style of coercion has now shown its hand in Malaysia.
But with a twist. It was not violent street mobs or semi literate villagers who did the dastardly deed. Instead it was state actors (most likely) wearing plain clothes and driving untraceable vehicles.
This situation can still be easily contained. Just hang a few of the civil servants who were behind this aberration and it will not likely happen again. I say 'hang' because in Malaysia kidnapping and murder are punishable by death. (The relevant law is Section 364 of the Penal Code. Bukan saya cakap tau. This is what the Law says).
And there is absolutely no statute of limitations on both kidnapping or murder. In other words whoever was involved in the disappearances of the FIVE people have to look behind their shoulders for the rest of their natural lives.
My gut feeling is this crime is already starting to haunt quite a few people (the entire team involved in the abduction of Amri, Pastor Koh, Helmy, Ruth plus one more person). The civil suit by Amri Che Mat's wife is going to open up a really big can of worms.
Here Is The Solution.
Where are the Muslims happy? They are happy in Australia, Canada, England, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, USA, Norway, Holland, Denmark, Singapore, (now maybe Indonesia).
Where are the Muslims not happy ? They are not happy in Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the 57 member countries of the OIC.
Basically, they're happy in every country that is not Muslim and unhappy in every country that is!
The bigger question is WHY?
WHY are the Muslims happy in the non Muslim countries?
WHY do Muslims physically escape from their countries and run away to the non Muslim countries to seek a better life (or often simply to save their own lives)?
Muslim refugees escaping to kafir Europe.
They do not want to escape to Muslim countries.
The reason is because in the non Muslim countries there is NO USE OF VIOLENCE TO ENFORCE RELIGION.
The reason is because in the non Muslim countries they use the force of law against people who use violence to enforce religion.
In Singapore the law allows the Muslims to be sunnis, shias, ahmadiyas, sufis, salafis, wahabis or anything else. Any sunni, shia, ahmadiya, sufi or salafi who resorts to the use of violence against another sect will be arrested and thrown in jail.
In other words all the different sects must learn to coexist peacefully.
No one sect can use violence against another sect in the name of their religion.
When I was living in the United States, there was only one masjid in our area. It was a salafi masjid funded by the Saudis. But everyone used to frequent that masjid including shias, salafis, the Muslim Brotherhood, the tabligh, etc. There were no other masjids. If anyone started yelling or fighting the local American police would arrest them and throw them in jail. So everyone learned to behave and respect each other's space.
What to do
This is the solution. The KDN, MKN, IGP please take note and make the correct recommendations to the government.
1. We cannot criminalise religious belief. Not only does it not work but it is stupid, brainless and careless. An immature and childish way of doing stupid things. It will only cause more hatred, anger and more violence.
2. The Federal Constitution should be amended to say point blank that criminalising religious belief should be made criminal.
3. The shariah criminal enactments must all be abolished.
4. Shias, sunnis, salafis, ahmadiyas, sufis, tablighis etc should all coexist - under FEAR OF THE LAW.
UNDER FEAR OF THE LAW MEANS any shia, sunni, salafi, ahmadiya, sufi etc who become violent towards other religious sects must be arrested and punished under the law.
Punished according to the existing Penal Code, CPC, SOSMA, NSC Act etc. We have enough laws to handle violent behaviour.
5. All religions and all religious sects should be allowed to co exist without one sect (for example the sunnis) criminalising another sect (for example shias, ahmadiyas, sufis, salafis) and vice versa. And laws must be passed outlawing separate burial grounds or cemeteries for different sects. There should be no such thing. All Muslims of any sect should continue to be buried in any Muslim cemetery - which is the practise now.
This is not the Stone Age lah kawan. This is the 21st century.
1400 years ago the Quran has already said so clearly :
Surah 4:137
"Indeed those who believed then disbelieved, and then believed again and then disbelieved again and then increased in disbelief Allah will never forgive them nor show them the way. "
There is ABSOLUTELY NO PUNISHMENT PRESCRIBED if someone believes, disbelieves, believes, disbelieves and persists in disbelief. They will just 'miss the boat'. That is all. It is their sad fate.
There is absolutely no prescribed punishment (like arrest them, jail them, kill them etc) for anyone who moves in and out of belief.
Those who disbelieve their fate rests with Allah. That is all.
That is why I keep saying 'Just listen to the Quran'.
Just follow the Quran and all human beings will be safe.
Here is a good example - ME.
I pose no physical or violent threat to any religious sect on account of their religious beliefs.
The ahmadiya folks used to invite me for their functions.
The tareqat folks used to invite me for their makan.
I attended the shias once - a loooong time ago.
Everyone should have the right to believe what they want.
Just do not force your sect on anyone else.
That must be made a crime.
The longer that we in Malaysia DO NOT abolish the shariah criminal enactments the faster this country will become another failed islamic country.
Don't say I did not warn you.
Read this very carefully.