Zaid, Islam is bigger than these ‘defenders’

What does ‘insulting Islam’ mean?

JD Lovrenciear: Former minister Zaid Ibrahim, you do justice to the great and respected religion, Islam. Thank you for raising this matter.

Yes, where is the element of blasphemy in the Sidek Kamiso case? It is time the vanguards of Islam diligently fulfilled their religious duty and justice to Islam. Where are their voices? Failing to defend the good name of Islam is unacceptable in a nation that has declared Islam as the official religion.

Pemerhati: The two tweets that seem to have got the police all worked up to take criminal action against those responsible are “Someone who made his career out of selling air jampi for any illness succumbed to his illness in a modern hospital in San Francisco. #irony” and “Adios Haron Din. Let there be peace.”

Most reasonable people will not be able to detect anything criminal or seriously wrong with these tweets.

But then it must be remembered that anyone can be apprehend and convicted even if he utters a simple harmless truth like saying that a sultan can be brought before a court.

The person convicted was lawyer Karpal Singh and the sultan he was referring to was the Perak sultan.

It has become very clear that in Malaysia you can be unfairly charged and convicted once you say or write something that the Umno and BN leadership does not like.

Paul Warren: For those who charge that someone has insulted Islam and for those who put themselves up to be defenders of Islam, you have to look at what that really means. When Islam has survived 1,400 years, surely these minions hardly amount to a speck of sand in the story of Islam.

Islam is bigger than them and their allegedly empty brains. For them to suggest that Islam has been insulted or that Islam requires them to defend it they assume something about Islam itself that makes it lesser than them.

So, these people are suggesting that they are stronger than Islam which is weak and requires them to defend it. Funny. I would suggest that it is they who are blaspheming.

Dalvik: I only have two questions:

1) If a politician is using religion to achieve his/her agenda – and if we disagree with that politician, would that be equivalent to disagreeing (or insulting for some people) the religion?

2) Is the faith of Malaysians that weak that we need police to ensure that an individual’s (in this case, a politician’s) interpretation of religion cannot be discussed or criticised?

Existential Turd: Even if former journalist Sidek Kamiso uttered something patently blasphemous about Islam, it is still not the police’s business to act as the religious police. The biggest insult to Islam has often come from the very people who self-profess to be its defenders.

6th Generation Immigrant: There was a time, during the era of former premier Mahathir Mohamad, there was an attempt to ban the word ‘Islam’ from being used in political parties’ names to help people differentiate what is actually of Allah and what is of Hadi Awang, Haron Din,

Otherwise people could not tell the difference, more so if they were continuously kept at a plateaued level for education, intelligence and intellect.

However, when that was not followed through, the country in general is now moving in the opposite direction today – everyone is holier than thou, whoever you are are. Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, etc are all sadly used to affront as well as a shield in routine daily life.

Every word uttered is almost always an insult to somebody in Malaysia – simply because we are multiracial and multireligious people. Guess who the exploiters are, then?

KCW: Sidek Kamiso’s tweet did not insult Islam. At worst, his tweet is only an insult to Haron Din’s family. It was uncivil, uncouth, uncultured and rude given the context of the sadness, sorrow and bereavement period experienced by Haron’s family on the death of their father.

The tweet also contained lies and defamed Haron Din by implying that he had been making a business out of his air jampi, when the fact is that Haron’s alternative treatment was free of charge.

Rudeness, crassness, uncultured and uncivilised behaviour is not a crime. It’s a mere reflection of his upbringing and manners. That’s all. Nothing can be related to insulting Islam.

Cogito Ergo Sum: KCW is right. But the position now is if you insult PAS or its members, you insult the faith. It’s that simple.

The Analyser: “Don’t call me a faggot unless you are my friend”. Insults are in the mind of the person insulted. As Islam is an inanimate concept, it’s impossible to insult it. But you can insult unimaginative narrow-minded Muslims. Just as you can insult unimaginative narrow minded Chinese or Indians.

The degree to which a person feels insulted is inversely proportional to that person’s self-confidence. So Islam is so easily ‘insulted’ because some Muslims allegedly have so little self-confidence that they rely on their religion (and their race) to maintain their personal self-worth.

Sleepy: Religion and politics need each other. The dalai lama was not invited by the Vatican for ‘peace prayers’ because it may offend the Chinese government.

Anonyxyz: Don’t you think all these small bush fires are being ignited to divert and distract the people from the 1MDB scandal?

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