Easily Swayed

Been following the debacle over the use of the word Allah.

Here's my two bits: Malaysian Muslims are not only an easily swayed bunch if they are to be so easily confused over the usage, they are also a bunch of elitist hypocrites. Or maybe it's just those who are in the throes of power. Either way, whatever the people in power say affects the grassroots. Hang on, and I mean the Malay Muslims. And then I get to thinking, wait a minute, being elitist probably is a cover for an inferiority complex. And that's the gist of it: in order to be better or seem better than everyone else in the country, the word Allah can only be used by the Muslims (read: Malay) in Malaysia.

"Only Muslims can use [the word] Allah. It's a Muslim word. It's from the Arabic language. We cannot let other religions use it because it will confuse people," deputy minister for internal security Johari Baharum told the press in explaining the rationale for the controversial decision. "We cannot allow this use of 'Allah' in non-Muslim publications; nobody except Muslims [can use it]. The word 'Allah' is published by the Catholics. It's not right," he said.

Someone obviously didn't school him in world history or religions of the world, nor does he know what's happening in other parts of the world because believers other than Muslims use the word Allah to refer to God as well. Hang on, he was probably locally educated so it doesn't make a difference anyway.

One wonders, if the Malaysian Muslims are so easily swayed or confused, isn't their belief in their religion nothing but a shallow facade? One would think that if your faith is true and you have a personal relationship with God, nothing is going to shake you of your belief.

Yes, we make the rules therefore we can claim Allah for ourselves, others be damned. Context be damned.

Remind me again why we keep insisting we are a developed nation?


Note: This entry of course doesn't apply to certain quarters of the population, also to those whom I know.