Posted on by Kit

Malays should be less dogmatic

– Hafiz Ahmad
The Malaysian Insider
December 24, 2013

The recent series of racial and religious polemics have caused a big storm in our country. It is worse when some politicians take advantage of these issues to become heroes so that people will applaud them as true Islamic/Malays protector. In return, they expect to get more votes in the next election.

They know that the Malays easily become irrational when it comes to racial and religious issues. The Malays have been trapped in a dogmatic circle for too long thus preventing them from thinking rationally.

I am truly impressed with Mujahid Yusuf Rawa’s effort, organising a dialogue to strengthen the bridge between Islam and Christianity; others, including the ulama and ustaz and those in Islamic institutions such as Jakim and Jais, have failed to do it.

The Malays are terrified with a lot of imaginary enemies then suddenly Mujahid came up with an idea to have a dialogue with this “imaginary enemy”. I feel such a relief when knowing there is at least one politician with thoughtful idea. This is the true Islamic teaching and understanding.

All these years, Malays have been filled with dogmatic values throughout various religious occasions. They believe and are convinced by every single thing preached by their ustaz or ulama, without taking little effort to think it over and verify things said.

The outcome is that there are lot false Islamic values spread among Malays, which subsequently give wrong the impression about Islam from non-Muslims. Words like “progressive” becomes so strange to them. When someone comes up with new progressive idea that is different from their dogmatic values they embraced all these times.

They quickly labelled as liberal, deviant, Western agent. This is what happened to Mujahid, Khalid Samad and several progressive leaders in PAS.

One thing I hate about dogmatic people is that they like to judge others. When they see a Muslim that does not follow Islamic dress codes, they simply assume that particular person is going to hell. In Islamic teaching there is always forgiveness for those who commit sins; they just have to ask for it directly from Allah without any

intermediary. Allah opens the door of forgiveness at night for His servants, those commit sin at daylight. They have failed to portray the true attributes of Allah Almighty. Malays can easily escape themselves from dogmatic circle by simply use their brains given by Allah. – December 24, 2013.

15 Replies to “Malays should be less dogmatic”

    1. So forcing everyone to follow a dress code so that it looks like everyone is of the same race and of the same religion. It does not only happen to one race alone. The need to control. Gila kuasa. Control shows power. It takes a whole lot of courage to change, to transform because it will mean not following the norm. The norm is the comfort zone. Everyone wants to feel good and secured.

    1. Animals, birds, creatures of the sea can become extinct. Humans are different. They evolve. In their thinking. If you believe that humans are from monkeys, then look at the progress this monkey gene has become but it will never be extinct. And who knows after another one thousand years from now, our descendents will look different from us now but they will still not be extinct.

  3. “…Malays can easily escape themselves from dogmatic circle by simply use their brains given by Allah. – ”

    Absolutely! And just as there are those who had preyed on the Malay’s dogmatism to lead them into a siege mentality, people such as Mujahid Yusuf Rawa and Khalid Samad should also do likewise for the opposite reasons.

  6. The term “dogmatic” can be used disparagingly to refer to any belief that is held stubbornly, and which can be simply applied to a grand hypothesis that, however plausible, had little direct experimental support. Clearly, we are being treated to the infinite capacity of the professorial mind for the dogmatic and ludicrous misinterpretation of evidence regarding past civilizations and religions in questions.

    Some lunatics or so-called historians would go the distance to make beliefs and create theories to justify their claims. I find this article on “The pseudo-theory on origins of the ‘Malay race’” by Lilianne Fan interesting enough. Pray tell me, what are they teaching our children in schools?

  9. The reply by Abu Ameen
    http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/liberalism-is-islams-real-enemy-abu-ameen

    shows how difficult the problem is.

    Abu Ameen uses instances and sweeping statements as all those with to his religo-training does, not science and mathematic. There is little argument of based on mathematic and technology.

    You can make all the argument in math and science all you want, but if they insist on using a methodology that is largely argumentative and not rigorous problem solving, the debate will never end..

  10. The reality of life today is that materialistic things are all STEM based; if the basic argument is based purely on religious philosophies then it must stop there. Then you cannot want to enjoy the fruits of STEM and at the same time pretend that the related subjects cannot be used in your argument! You then have to walk, no air-con, no flights etc!!! The surprising thing is when they need it whether cash, anythings that cash can buy, they conveniently forget all the connected impacts of STEM. They must be hallucinating!

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