If not for the fact that the writer that I am about to quote is an Arabic Muslim of some international repute, I would probably be charged with sedition for insulting Islam. I have previously quoted Abd al-Rahman Azzam in one of my earlier postings.

The book that I am reading was found in a bargain bin and the title is “The Eternal Message of Muhammad”. I was reluctant to buy it because it was still not cheap despite the hefty discount. However, the benefit of hindsight tells me that my instinct was right.

Anyway, I am sharing the following passage with my fellow Malaysians because:

1. most Malaysian non-Muslims far too often have a misguided impression of what Islam is; and
2. the political stand of many Malaysian Muslims, especially in regard to racial equality, is contradictory to the faith they profess.
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To all my fellow Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, I would like to share passages from two books — one written by a Muslim and the other by a Jew.

The passages from The Eternal Message of Muhammad by Abd al-Rahman Azzam:

“In its modern form, nationalism is a new evil, and racism is worse still; and there is no cure for either except to uproot tens of millions from their present places of residence and confine them to specific geographic areas.”

The Message of Muhammad recognizes neither nationalism nor racism in their modern contexts; the fatherland of the Muslim admits no geographic delimitations—it coextends with the faith. In reality, it is a spiritual fatherland, just as religion is a spiritual matter.”

“Racism, or a fanatic attachment to tribe, nation, color, language, or culture, is rejected by the Message as a product of pre-Islamic idolatry. The prophet declares, “He is not of us who preaches bigotry.” Islam rejects every form of bigotry. All loyalties are directed to the word of God, and no relation above the spiritual is recognized.”

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This morning, on a whim, I checked out our Opposition Leader’s website, and chanced upon a hot-off-the-press posting by Dr. Chen Man Hin. In his posting, Dr. Chen suggested that the Prime Minister invite Raja Nazrin Shah, the Crown Prince of Perak, to be his personal adviser, in light of the latter’s speech at the first Malaysian Student Leaders Summit 2007.

For what it’s worth, I must say that that’s an ingenius and interesting idea from Dr. Chen. I wonder what Raja Nazrin thinks. (By the way, Raja Nazrin’s credentials are quite impressive. Check out the link to his entry in Wikipedia above.)
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Once again, I’d like to comment on Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s article, but this time, I agree with what he’s saying.

Basically, I agree that “when we go beyond labels such as ‘secular’ and ‘Islamic’ and connect with the substance of our three principal documents we will discover that there is a degree of congruence between the two positions.” And the three documents that Dr. Chandra is talking about are the Federal Constitution, the Rukunegara and Vision 2020.

Now, my question is, how do we move forward from this apparent impasse? It’s very obvious that the current hooha is created by the Deputy Prime Minister for political reasons. Indeed, it’s so idiotic for him to make such a statement that I won’t even go into the so-called debate.
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After chatting with a friend about my blog, I realised that I need to be a bit more positive about things, and also more constructive.

Hence, after some reflection about my “apartheid posting”, I believe there is a better way forward for Malaysia. At least in terms of patching up racial relations between the different ethnic communities.

Actually, I started writing this posting yesterday but had to stop for lunch, meetings and so forth. Anyway, it’s just as well that I didn’t finish it yesterday because I just read Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s comment in the NST this morning. Frankly, I am surprised Dr. Chandra still has so much confidence in the government and the Parliament.
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