Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Nazri should learn to understand the non-muslims' feeling


Any non-muslim who read the statement of Dato Nazri Abdul Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, as appeared in Malaysiakini yesterday would feel that the statement was unfair to the non-muslims.
How to make Nazri understand the non-muslims' feeling? It's simple. Just ask him to replace the words "non-muslims" to "muslims" and vice-versa in the following excerpt from the Malaysiakini report. Then, read and re-read it.

Don't incite Muslims, warns Nazri
Pauline PuahMar 20, 06 2:10pm


The government will not hesitate to use the Sedition Act against non-Muslims who “incite the sentiments” of Muslims, warned Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.
"We will not think twice about using this law against anyone who incites - that’s why we still need the Sedition Act and ISA (Internal Security Act)," he told reporters after receiving a memorandum in support of the amended Islamic Family Law (IFL) at the Parliament building today.
He said Muslims have shown a high level of tolerance but this has its limits.
“Because we are tolerant people, we would like (others) to respect our threshold. It’s not for them to interfere in our (Islamic) affairs," he said. However, Nazri, who is the de facto law minister, said the government has no plans to draft a law to prohibit non-Muslims from raising matters or questions related to Islam.
"We don’t need to have a law to prohibit discussion on any issue. This is a harmonious country and we respect one another, especially on religious matters....Non-Muslims should understand there are some matters that they cannot touch or utter," he said.
He argued that Muslim Malaysians have never interfered in or ridiculed other religions, and that non-Muslims should therefore apply similar principles in matters involving Islam.
(Picture by courtey of Malaysiakini)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hah! this guy contradicts himself all in one sentence.
Muslim have shown a high level of tolerance(?) but this has its limit. Just like saying I can jump very high but has its limit.
Why he has to warn the non-muslim beats me.

Anonymous said...

Hi pemerhati_msia, Can't you understand that the non-muslims are being blamed for nothing? Who are the non-muslims inciting the muslims, and vice-versa. nazri had made an unnecessary statement bad for national integrity. NG

Anonymous said...

Ha Ha
I finally understood what that rotor mouth said after substituting the words as suggested. It makes more interesting read and I am sure more people can identified with the Ministar if the words highlighted are changed.

On another note why must we always emphasise on Muslim/Non muslim; Malays/Non malays;Bumi/Non Bumi. We are all Malaysians lah. We swim or sink together lah. Our 'enemies' or more appropriate our competitors are the outside world. If tomorrow Malaysia is in trouble, you think other nations will help. It will be us helping each other so why all these dichotomies that agitate and weaken us?

Anonymous said...

What about exchange the word: non-muslim with muslim? pemerhati_msia, please share how u feel if the following article is written this way?



Don't incite Non-Muslims, warns XYZ
Pauline PuahMar 20, 06 2:10pm


The government will not hesitate to use the Sedition Act against Muslims who “incite the sentiments” of non-Muslims, warned Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department XYZ.

"We will not think twice about using this law against anyone who incites - that’s why we still need the Sedition Act and ISA (Internal Security Act)," he told reporters after receiving a memorandum in support of the amended Islamic Family Law (IFL) at the Parliament building today.

He said non-Muslims have shown a high level of tolerance but this has its limits.

“Because we are tolerant people, we would like (others) to respect our threshold. It’s not for them to interfere in our (Buddhist, Christian, Hindus) affairs," he said. However, XYZ, who is the de facto law minister, said the government has no plans to draft a law to prohibit Muslims from raising matters or questions related to other religions.

"We don’t need to have a law to prohibit discussion on any issue. This is a harmonious country and we respect one another, especially on religious matters....Muslims should understand there are some matters that they cannot touch or utter," he said.

He argued that Non-Muslim Malaysians have never interfered in or ridiculed other religions, and that nMuslims should therefore apply similar principles in matters involving other religion.

Anonymous said...

Pemerhati says
'Look at it this way: If a muslim comments that the partaking of the Lord's Supper (Holy Communion) is of no relevance, or the burning of joss sticks in Taoist rites is irrelevant and detrimental to the environment's air quality, wouldn't the Christians and Taoists get offended. More importantly: Who are the muslims to have a say in Christian/Taoist practices? It's none of the muslims' business what the Christians and Taoists do in their religion.'

If my religion gets misunderstood by others I will take it that perhaps I did not explain too well my religion to others or my actions have caused others to misunderstand. At the worse I will plead to them to refrain from criticising my religion but I will not threaten others. This will only worsen the situation and cause us to drift apart.

Sure we all have different opinions and perceptions of others but why harp on the differences? Why not be a little less hung up and live life as how Ong describe it?

Pemerhati says
'When was the last time you asked your "other-religion" or "other-race" friends to shut up about your religion/race issues? We the rakyat got along fine. Then along came over-zealous politicians riding on the racial-sentiment bandwagon and use whatever issues they can find to gain the support of that particular race/religion...
"
Totally agree with you on this