Christian Allah, Church-on-fire and Babe, the pig-in-the-mosque: The imminent demise of intellectual maturity and national solidarity!

I was just going through my files and found this article, which i wrote a while ago but just never had the push to post it on my blog. The issues are cold and have subsided by now, which is good, and i wish it will stay that way forever.

The title does not look very nice to begin with. I never thought that I would someday use all of those words in one sentence. But hey, we are a creative and innovative bunch of people…we create something out of thin air! We see all of the above episodes, in sequence, building up to a long twisted Hindi movie! And this is me trying to be a movie critique:

Episode 1: Christian Allah
I don't have to give a background on this. We have all seen and read too much about this and I am not in the mood to reproduce any of it. I think that from an Islamic point of view, there is nothing wrong with anyone or any religion wanting to use the name Allah to represent God. There is no harm in it Islamically, theologically, historically and legally. But this is purely from an international and academic context.

Now let’s localize the issue. If the name Allah has been used by the Christians for a long period of time in Malaysia, then I would continue to allow for it to continue. But if it is a new initiative to use the name Allah, then I question the motives behind it. I was made to understand that the Sabahans and Sarawakians have been using it for ages, but not our fellow Christian friends in peninsular Malaysia. The reason for that is people in East Malaysia apparently don't speak English very well. But I wonder if you need to be able to speak good English to pronounce a name. My name is Amir Faizal Naidu Bin Abdul Manan. I was in the UK for more than 3 years…and those white people don't speak Malay at all..in fact, they were the ones who invented the English language…and yet they didn't have any problem saying my very Malay (plus a bit Indian and Arabic) names… well, actually they had trouble saying it the first time, but I didn't have to change my name to John or Chris or any other English sounding names! The point is, since when do you change your name to suit the local dominant language?

Some would argue that it’s just a name…so let it go. I disagree. It is not just a name. For a Muslim believer it means more than a name. It is semantics. The word Allah is underpinned by a concept and strict definition of God. But because a Muslim does not have any knowledge of the physical attributes of God nor do Muslims have any objects as divine representation, the name Allah is deeply revered and is held higher than anything else. So it’s not just a name to the fellow Muslims. But if it is just a name to others, than why the name Allah? Why not any other names? In fact, I would happily loan mine …Amir Faizal Naidu Bin Abdul Manan…pick one :)

Episode 2: Church-on-fire!
Two wrongs don't make a right. Our society needs to grow up. Throwing tantrums will only reveal your childishness and immaturity. Nothing else I can or wish to say.

Episode 3: Piggy-Mosque
This is one fishy piggy- episode. For a start, it was not even a pig head that was thrown in the mosques. I was told that it was the heads of wild-boars. I don't think it is that easy to find wild-boars…I don't think you can freely buy them in a wet market. Now if this is the case, then you would need to go hunting for it? But why wild-boars and why not a pig-head when it is much easier to get hold of the latter? Why the hassle….? Could it be that you don't want to be seen buying things in a haram market? Or perhaps get yourself in contact with haram objects? Could it be that hunting would be easier as you could spend your time to wrap it carefully and not having to touch any haram parts yourself? But why does it matter if it is haram to you ?hhmm…kuru kuru… Anyway, no point speculating…

Secondly, why wrap it in a plastic bag? Now if I were to have vengeance with evil plans and a devilish attitude, then I would want to hurt them where it hurts the most….and wrapping it with a plastic bag is of no use…why wasn't the pigheads thrown in the mosques without any wrappers? Let the blood drip and stain the carpet? That would have really hurt the Muslims even more, wouldn't it? I wonder if it is because the perpetrators feel guilty about it? But you would only feel guilty about it if the mosques mean something to you….hhmm..kuru kuru…

Something just don't feel right about this one. It appears as if someone is doing it deliberately to incite hatred and build racial tension. I have my theories, but they are mine to keep :)