Saturday, January 17, 2015

Tengku Adnan wants Muslims to follow liberal Hinduism butt out Perkasa

Salvaging religion from quacks Campaigns and Hindutva sloganeering, There has been a growing feeling that unless the PM speaks out, in the long run the communal surround sound would undermine his agenda for the economy caused by religious, ethnic or economic cleavages. All of the above or any one of these could have been the immediate reason for the killings. But what they have laid bare is that the basic underlying assumption in  Malaysia that one culture can laminate over all other cleavages is a lie.A common culture is not enough of a glue to paper over the growing gaps between immigrants and the Malay Muslims  Even Communist China has spectacularly failed in elevating the God of Communist Nationalism as a substitute for religion or ethnicity. This is despite the assistance of State machinery which is at its best in very heavy handed policing.  But a Common Culture is surely anathema alongside a belief in Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor says he will advise Batu Kawan Umno deputy chief Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan to withdraw the police report on 1MDB's alleged scandals. – The Malaysian Insider pic, December 13, 2014.
 To drag the country back towards religious bigotry and social disharmony.
It is my considered view that liberal Muslims far outnumber fundamentalist Muslims Will the majority, in its own self-interest, now stand up and oppose the hijacking of Islam by the loonies Perkasa, Pekida and PAS a "religious criminal organisation" leading to the ethnic cleansing in Malaysia  our media pride themselves on free and bold speech, they maintain a conspiracy of silence on some issues relating to the supposed “national interest.” Tengku Adnan has taken an important first step to reassure a large section of its voters that it will not succumb to its extremist fringe.




Our Common Religion: Jews, Muslims, Parsis, Christians have thrived   because of a liberal Hinduism Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor today slammed Malay rights group Perkasa for "making noise" and "instigating" by questioning the construction of a Hindu temple in Putrajaya.Among the many battles that will determine the further evolution of the mankind, one is unfolding largely ignored. We are familiar with the normal fault lines: rich vs poor, left vs right, Muslims vs Hindu. But the deciding battle of the future will be between Muslims themselves, abrasively espouse the new, right wing, fundamentalist and intolerant brand of Islam Hounded by Islamic authorities and taken to court for having different religious views,  has vowed to fight to the end.said the Federal Territories Minister

Those of the latter school have found dramatic visibility after Najib came to power. They are whipping up a new fear psychosis in Islam  arguing that their faith is under threat from several ‘others’ of which  Hindus are the most important.
Many arguments are insidiously deployed to prove this point. The first is that the cultural and social behaviour of the minorities is inherently ‘inferior’ to the natural cultural ‘supremacy’ of the majority community. The second is that Muslims are seeking to ‘dominate’Muslims  and still behaving like ‘rulers’.
The third is that both Muslims and Christians are actively trying to convert Hindus to their faith, and that – laughably enough – ‘handsome’ young Muslim men are trying to seduce young Hindu women as part of a ‘love jihad’. The fourth is that Muslims are multiplying at a much faster rate than Hindus, and that at this rate Hindus will soon become a minority in their own land. The fifth – and this is the most potent weapon of all – is that a policy of ‘Muslim appeasement’ is being follow-ed which is discriminatory to Hindus.All the above arguments are either lies or half lies. There has been a great degree of syncretism over the centuries, which has created hugely visible bridges and commonalities between all Indians. There is no evidence that Muslims are seeking to dominate anyone.
Unlike the Tamils in MALAYSIA or the Chinese in Southeast Asia, who are often accused by the majoritarian communities of unfair economic and professional dominance, Muslims pose no threat to Hindus in Malaysia have no reason, therefore, to feel intimidated by a presence which has been with them for centuries.
The belief that Muslims are growing at a faster pace than Hindus has been repeatedly disproved, but the Sakshi and the Sadhvi want Hindu women to have four children nonetheless! Conversions to Islam or Christianity could have happened in isolated cases, but these have never really made any dent in the overwhelmingly assured majority status of Hindus.
Two major proselytising religions – Islam and Christianity – conquered India by force in the past. Both invaders openly used their military superiority for evangelical purposes, but in spite of obvious rewards on offer most Hindus did not surrender their faith.
One has only to see what happened in other countries in similar situations to appreciate the difference. For instance, as the official religions of conquering or colonising powers, Islam and Christianity overwhelmed the people of the African continent; their success in Southeast Asia and Latin America was no less spectacular. In India they failed. Hindus were the overwhelming majority a thousand years ago, and remain so today.
The argument of ‘appeasement’ is heard most often. It is true that just as BJP aggressively cultivates a Hindu vote bank, other parties have cynically sought to attract Muslim support with unnecessary giveaways and selective application of laws that should apply equally to all Indians. Such blatantly motivated policies need to be condemned. However, to dub anything done for the minorities as appeasement is equally cynical.
The majority in the Muslim community is statistically at the bottom of society across a wide range of verifiable social and economic indices. In such circumstances, it cannot but be good policy to provide a backward minority, along with other deprived categories, special incentives and safeguards under the law to participate on equal terms in mainstream opportunities of the country.
The truth is that Hindus are not, and have never been, insecure about their religion. Hinduism has always existed in a remarkably self-assured way, largely immune to attack or demise because no one entity – scripture, church or god – limits its diffused omnipresence.
It is also a matter of historical record that Hindus have not been hostile to other faiths. The reason quite simply is that they were not afraid of them. Jews lived peaceably in India before they did anywhere else. Muslim traders from Arab countries practiced their faith undisturbed in Kerala more than a thousand years ago. Parsis came in the seventh century and Christians in the fourth, unsupported by armies.
Essentially, Hindus are a practical people; they – and especially the young – want to get on with their lives and benefit from the secular dividends of economic growth and development; they are temperamentally opposed to any prolonged instability and disorder that could be a consequence of religious violence, especially when it is amply clear that there is no alternative to coexistence.Our deepest sympathies are of course with the French for what has come to pass to their beautiful country. But no Indian can resist the deep sense of relief that despite our poverty; our widespread illiteracy; our linguistic, ethnic, cultural and religious heterogeneity we as Indians have hung together fairly well in relative terms.
This is not to say that minority rights are well protected in India. Nor do we hold that India has done well by its marginalized populations. But for a relatively new State and a less developed economy with deep rooted traditional cleavages, it is a remarkable achievement that we are bound ever tighter by our non-traditional beliefs in democracy; equity in access to public opportunities and freedom of choice in all aspects of life.
India has weathered violence more extreme, that seen in France recently, despite it being directly as viciously and specifically at a particular sect; religion or ethnicity. The reasons why we have managed to do so are ironical.
First, a weak State can be an asset. Unlike France we were never able to become a “Nanny State”. Every Indian knows that if she or her extended family does not look after themselves no one else will step in-least of all the State. This lack of an efficient, impersonalized, State provided social protection is cruel for the poor. But the consequential, pervasive, economic pressure of constantly working to make two ends meet keeps us on our toes. The desperation to keep working reduces the availability of idle human fodder to perpetrate the kind of terror in Paris.  The downside is the magnified roles local elites play in shaping opinion due to their economic and political clout.
Second, Indians happily accept that all 1240 million of us we are NOT one big happy family with a common culture. No Indian wants a common, pan-Indian culture. Indians are used to living and working in an aggressively antagonistic, “non-localized environment”. The French in contrast are more molly coddled and less “internationalized” than us. 25% of Indians do not live in the place they were born and large scale migration is a fact. 2% of Indians live in foreign countries. We have assimilated and adapted to invaders, foreign conquerors and traders over the last 1000 years.
So let’s take heed of what has happened in France and the failure of the “one culture” project of the French. The world is too open; too complex and too integrated today for seeking “autarkic” options.
Culling our traditions to get options for the future is sensible but must have the caution that our greatest tradition has been of keeping our windows open, not tightly shut and making space for anyone wanting to clamber onto the “bus”, which is Malaysia

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