Why “Pluralism” is a bad word (for some Muslims)
February 14th, 2008 gier
This is a personal opinion, obviously and can quite probably be rubbish, but I thought I’d just write it down.
I have a confession. Until a couple of years ago, I didn’t know what “pluralism” meant. I first got to hear about it when someone mentioned to me about the Perak Mufti’s statements on protecting Islam from pluralism and liberalism at some conference or other, 2 years ago. And then, for 2 successive years, during Aidilfitri prayers, the khatib was banging on about the same thing, where we should protect ourselves from the evils of pluralism, liberalism … and hedonism[1].
I think, for the most part, pluralism is just a synonym for religious tolerance[2], or in other words, the acceptance that there are many religions followed by many people and we should just all get along — no need for crusades and the rest of that rubbish. All religions, including Giant Teapot[3] and Flying Spaghetti Monster (Pastafarians) are by nature, non-violent.
So, I thought, what’s the problem?
This has been addressed in several opinions by a multitude of people, so I’ll just join the crowd, then. To get to the crust crux of the matter, Pluralism is a bad thing from the Malaysian Muslims perspective because:
- One simply cannot “tolerate” the sesat buggers like the Teapot people, or those making fun of religion like the Pastafarians. It would be insulting to God, and there should be no quarter given, and
- If one accepts the existence of other religions, it would be tantamount to acknowledging the existence of other gods, and that would be polytheism (menduakan Allah).
For the first reason, it’s one thing to be ridiculous, but it’s another to subvert the One True Religion into something else, as in the case of the Teapot and Baha’i, say. Therefore, to say that these people have the right to exist is anathema. Having said that, I’m still wondering how the Baha’i dudes could still have “churches”, or whatever they call their place of worship, here in Malaysia.
For the second reason, in my honest opinion, it represents the main view of the more conservative mullahs and their followers in Malaysia. So much so, it has given rise to the “prohibition” in celebrating other people’s religious days, e.g. Christmas, Deepavali and Hanukkah … and strangely enough, would also sometimes include non-religious events like the Chinese Lunar New Year[4]. The rejection of plurality is also, in a sense, the affirmation of exclusivity — there is No God But God. And therein lies the difficulty for people like me … since Islam is supposed to be a religion of compassion and tolerance, yet it’s treated like an exclusive club where non-Muslims are considered either godless heathens or misguided fools. While there has not been any overt “fair game” doctrines[5] given, here in multi-racist Malaysia, it sometimes feel like some Muslims think that the people of other religions are, indeed, 2nd class citizens. Well, I don’t want to be that type of Muslim, thank you very much.
This anti-pluralism is then, coupled with the racial “Ini Tanah Melayu” bias, has further propagated the Us vs. Them mentality. Happy Elections, everyone!
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[1] I was falling asleep during the sermon, before I caught the word “hedonism” being said. Perked-up considerably at that point, then drifted off again when the imam dude didn’t elaborate what hedonism was.
[2] Tolerance is like this: “I don’t like that fler, but have to tolerate him lah, because work same place. Cibai la him.”
[3] I was rather disconcerted when I first saw the Teapot, because I thought that Ayah Pin could not possibly have channelled Bertrand Russell and his Celestial Teapot argument. Evidently not, and I was relieved, since the thought that Ayah Pin could have been aware of Russell’s challenge would have put an entirely different take on that cult.
[4] Last week, there were a lot of “Cina balik kampung“[6]. One of my staff, she balik kampung to Batu Pahat. This lady I know working in the gomen, she balik kampung to Setiawan. My old Sains Paduan teacher, Mr. Jimmy, if he’s still alive would balik kampung to Bentong[7], I’m sure. No one I know balik kampung to Tongsan, wherever that is.
[5] Not that I’m comparing Islam to Scientology.
[6] Also lots of Melayu balik kampung, India balik kampung and Dan Lain-lain balik kampung too. Long weekend, mah!
[7] Mr. Jimmy’s favourite story was how his kampung would slaughter their cows. According to him, there is a bangsal where the people would herd the cow into. In the bangsal, there’d be a stout beam hung from the ceiling, and once the cow was in, they’d drop the beam on the cow’s head. “Pow!” he’d say. “Itu lembu kena kayu, mati! Hahahahaha!” Mr. Jimmy, you da man[8].
[8] Mr. Jimmy was also the man who introduced us to the wonders of pure Sodium(Na) interacting with water. “Berdiri jauh, pergi itu belakang. Saya mau letak ini Natrium masuk air.” And we’d all move to the back of the lab, wondering what was going to happen next. He’d carry a little sliver of sodium (smoking at the end of a tong) and plonk it into a basin of water and scarper like mad to join us at the back. Boom! The bloody water exploded and Mr. Jimmy would go, “Hahahahahaha! Ini merbahaya, reaksi natrium dengan air. Jangain main-main!“
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