Making Conclusions

I'm sure most of us have heard about the KL High Court's order to reverse the ban on the use of the term "ALLAH" in Herald (A Christian publication). And as expected we could already see the negative reaction from most Muslims who are taken aback or 'rasa tercabar' with the verdict (and some even suggested Majlis Raja-Raja to respond!). While some (if not many) of us just don't mind with Malaysian Christian publications using the term "ALLAH" in their newsletters, like in one commentary h e r e, where the author is actually happy that Christians and Muslims in Malaysia can now share the word Allah. Now, i took my stand on the minaret issue in Switzerland h e r e, and since this 'ALLAH'-term issue is in our beloved country (but not in any other countries like Switzerland), let me shy away from making any comments or drawing hasty conclusions regarding this rather 'sensitive' and 'controversial' issue. That's because I'm a medical student who is sponsored by our generous government, so I don't want to have my scholarship reversed or even worse end up in Kamunting! (Yes, although we embrace freedom of speech, I think my opinion on this matter is not that of great importance that I have to 'proclaim' it ever so openly in this mischievously free-to-write blogging world.) What (i think) i can say is that we should all await future events that'll unfold - appeal in Courts, protests, name-calling, nasty commentaries, political opportunist taking centre stage, public condemnation, and other nasty things which I hope would never happen. So let me warn you that we should never simply draw conclusions out of these issues like how Tun has tempted to talk about double-standards in religious matters by Westerners in the Swiss-minaret issue and French headscarf ban. To me, the Swiss and French has the prerogative to ban minarets and headscarves because they are 'negara-negara yang berdaulat'. Hey, even people who'd like to celebrate 2010 in Times Square New York were banned from bringing alcohol! (for security reasons of course). My point is that we should reason out with facts and figures. If Tun said that the Westerners would condemn us if we disallow statues for Hindu temples, let me ask him this, why would we want to ban the statues in the first place? Yes, that was just an example, still, to use that as an example means we have to fully reason out our deductions and conclusions from it if it were true. The fact is that there are only 4 minarets in Switzerland (like Tun said, I'm not so sure but that might be true). And another fact is that we don't worship minarets. And of course, these minarets were only banned because it was agreed upon a referendum for whatever reason the Swiss might think of the minaret. So we don't have to be delusional and overreact to a Court's order. Let's be reasonable. We still have ALLAH on our side, that's if we believe in Him.

"Do not argue with the people of the scripture (Jews and Christians) except in the nicest possible manner - unless they transgress - and say, "We believe in what was revealed to us and in what was revealed to you, and our god and your god is one and the same; to Him we are submitters." Quran [29:46]

Happy new year 2010!