50 Years of Malaysian Islamization

A Review of Thoughts

MPW 2143 Islamic Studies Individual Assignment

1081102 464 Eddy Izuwan Bin Musa

50 Years of Malaysian Islamization A Review of ThoughtS 1081102464 Eddy Izuwan Bin Musa

Islam, the light of mankind. I confessed to whoever reading this article that I was having such a thought. I professed proudly to anyone who dared to denounce the purity of Islam in front of me. I shall not here any blaspheming in the Lords name in my presence, for even the slightest utter of it would drive me religious and vengeful. Such was my life as a teenager among the rest of my Muslim brothers. As maturity ticks in it occurred to me. Islam is a religion of peace and tranquillity, as Muhammad has preached over and over again in the Hadith, and appeared countless times in the Al-Quran. Why are we then, so vengeful? What have gone wrong within the time of his sermons till this day? Has so many things happened that Muslims no longer adhere to the true teachings of Islam? Then it occurred to me yet again, on what basis did these non-believers were so sceptical on the purity of Islam of which I have complete confidence on? Am I in the wrong? Am I the one at lost amid my Muslim brethren who ceremoniously declared as long as they maintained true to their Islamic faith they will not go astray? How wrong I was. Upon research, I discovered the difference of the cultural lifestyle of the Muslims back then of the time of Muhammad S.A.W, to the time of the 4 Caliphs, to the time of the Civilization Age. Then I compared it to the time of the Dark Ages where Islam fell beginning of the 19th century. How could this have happen? How did the great peaceful empire of Ottoman reduced to such rubble? Is my beloved Malaysian the next in the list of Islamic Fall? I am sad to say that after studying this chronological order of events that took place in Malaysia, I have no doubt that should the current state of affairs continue in its decline, Malaysia will fall in a period of half a decade. Why do I say this you ask? Please allow me to point out several bold events that led me to such a conclusion. But before I begin going into facts, I must make it clear that my entire purpose is not to ridicule my fellow Muslim Brothers. My goal, in its purest form was simply to alert them on the possible downfall that

awaits us should we do not act. Our older generation forefathers are losing their touch, their mindset still intact of the exact reasons that brought the fall of the Ottoman Empire. It is my dearest regret should such a thing come to past for my beloved Malaysia. I employ all of you; readers to maintain an open mind and let us embark into the journey of my thoughts supported by true incidents that rocked our country. As a short summary to what I am about to reveal, I must say that the Islam in our country is very restrictive, dominative, authoritative and downright tyrannical. I am definitely filled with surprised when I compared my views with those good friends of mine from Iran, Saudi, and Afghanistan and only to find myself standing alone with my beliefs. You might argue that my faith or my Imam is not developed enough to withstand foreign policies; but allow me to ask you this; Who and what our principles is then, if the main source, our great teacher, China, Saudi, Iran, Afghanistan, says that we are wrong? Are we then, the ignorant fool of a student who ignored the sensible teachings of a master? In 1974, our beautiful angels of care and health, The Red Cross Society was re-named Red Crescent Society for reasons that appeared obvious to some Muslims. Was it really an offense? Why is it so, that our ignorant child-like country of barely 10 years old adhere to such radical methods; while other Islam Empire co-exist with such a term for centuries? Prince of Egypt, a beautiful movie by DreamWorks which depict nothing else apart from Motherly Love, Family Love, friendship, purity of faith in face of Tyranny, be considered un-Islamic and banned in Malaysia? I think I should re-emphasize such a notion; why is such moralcondensed movie being considered un-Islamic and banned? It is a movie depicting a prophet, Moses! they say. My Islam knowledge tells me that Moses was among the prophets by Allah S.W.T. His efforts against the tyranny of Egyptian Pharaoh stayed strong in our hearts for generations upon generations; enticing the hearts of many young believers throughout the globe. Never once was Moses considered un-Islamic; and thus, yet again, a public display of our ignorance. Prophets are human being that much is certain, and approved by Al-Quran. Being of great men, these prophets were heroes among mankind an ancient everlasting idol of history. It has been retold countless time through various forms of media. It began by words, to tablets, to inscriptions, to monuments, to papers, then to chronicles and to books. Why should the flow of media stopped when it

was converted onto the big screen? Movie after all, is merely the next stage of media innovation. What fatal difference would it make, reading visually a famous story? In 1981, the Indonesian translation of the Bible Alkitab was banned under the Internal Secutiy Act. READ! said Gabriel to Muhammad - and hence our ignorant Malaysians just banned one of the greatest knowledge books in history. The bible is a book available to all as much as Al-Quran is. It was so during the time of Prophet Muhammad himself, down to Caliphs, and continued throughout the Islamic Golden Age. The bible, being a book, in essence is merely another branch of knowledge. Why should we Muslims deny our very own Muslims a source of knowledge, when Islam in its primary essence involves seeking knowledge? Was it so much of a glare that blinded our fellow Muslims to the obvious difference between the declines of the Islamic world now comparing to the time of the Ottomans? The day we ban books, was the mark of the beginning of the fall of any civilization in the world. Islam itself is not immune to this simple fact. But, fear not! Let us all rejoice and relax, and rely on our Malaysian geniuses to reply to such a notion with their; ever so well hyperbole common sense. 1984: It became illegal for non-Muslims to use 49 so called Islamic words including Allah, Alhamdulillah, and Insya Allah. It may be my lack of knowledge; being a Muslim at the age of 20 (my fellow Middle Eastern friends included) we were not aware of Islam being a language. We were not aware of words such as Alhamdulillah was Islamic. We were entirely convinced on the thought that such beautiful phrases, (apart from the name Allah S.W.T.) were of Arabic origins; derived from Arabic language that have lasted for centuries even before Muhammad S.A.W.s time. We werent aware that the open use of such words by a non-Islamic is a sin. May god have mercy on our souls, on our ignorance of using those words as polite greetings to whoever we encounter along the road. Then it occurred to me, it would have been difficult for any of us to continue spreading Islam teachings to people around the world, if the very simplistic words such as those greetings were not allowed within the conversation. Despite the; seemingly wise decisions implemented by my elderly forefathers within the ministry; we are anxiously finding for such a source that clarify the credibility of such concepts. It would be of great service, if any of my readers who may help us in this matter to send me the source link to my email, Enishi90@hotmail.com .

Up to date, over 10 Hindu temples have been demolished by local councils on grounds that the structures were illegal. Starting from 1980, approvals for buildings of non-Muslim places of worship became increasingly difficult. Unusual conditions were imposed height restrictions on steeples, design restrictions temple domes Sikh Gurdwaras are barred from building their traditional domes for fear that it may cause confusion for looking too mosque-like. Such interesting remarks! Long was the days when Prophet Muhammad stamped his food over the disturbance of other believes. Long was the days gone when us Muslims live peace at peace with other faiths; holding hand in hand that achieved wonders even now historians gawk in awe. Long, was gone the days where Muslims, Jews, and Christians have places of worship placed side by side in Jerusalem during the time of Salehuddin. What has become of us? Where does this hatred and segregation born? Clearly our ignorance as a new country is taking its toll, sparking fear and hate among our own nation while sparking laughs beyond the borders. Apart from some of this bold achievements succeeded by our honourable Ministry, there were countless more agendas that involved the limitation of media for very interesting twisted form of logic. It occurred to me as I was drawing comparison of our policies to any historical relevance in the past; only to find similarities to the time of Adolf Hitlers reign which took tyrannical control of the media spreading Media Communism and false propaganda of twisted rulings. It is of extreme regret for me to announce that despite my research and observations, I could not draw a proper image of similarity of our Islamic principles that match the time of the Islamic Golden Age. No wonder we are still in the Dark Ages; our lines of thoughts are not as developed as our Muslim ancestors back then. Such an interesting psychological phenomenon! Should time machine was ever invented; all it takes is for one average citizen from the Golden Age to come to the present; and he would suffice to save our Islamic world today from the slumps. My love in Islam has not wavered. But maturity and logic stops me from being as rash as I once was. I know now, that should a person speaks ill of Islam in Malaysia, though it pained me greatly I could not deny that I agreed to him; for Allah S.W.T. do not allow its followers to be hypocritical; and hence I shall not be hypocrite. The 50 years of Malaysian Islamization; to me personally I believe the more adequate title should have been The 50 years of Malaysian path to Ignorance. Because the more restrictions we restrict ourselves, the more hatred and segregation we instil among the nation the further we are from true Islam. We

have to revert back to the Al Quran, its Hadith, and learn from our mistakes that brought us down from our Empirical Throne of the Islamic Golden Age. I plead to my Muslim brothers to come to realize on our status in the world; our ignorance on the flow of time and its information developments. Please purge ourselves of our misguided thoughts, and regain our status and respect as we had from the 9th to 17th century; or sink in the depths of twisted stupidity and ignorance that is lower than a stage ever recorded in history. Unfortunately...the later is closer at hand.