Alas Kamarul, your credentials maketh not a wise man

Faced with derision, UUM lecturer flaunts academic qualifications

Anonymous #45527285: Having highest distinction in academia is one thing while having wisdom, common sense and principles are another. Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, you are of the former and lacking in the latter.

Your intention to make yourself popular for the wrong reasons is stupid, to say the least, and morally wrong and not befitting of a person with academic distinctions.

Ravinder: What was this academician’s “valid and substantiated academic and professional opinion” on Selangor speaker Hannah Yeoh’s biography?

In Malaysia, can a Muslim convert out of Islam even if he strongly desires to do so? How many of the hundreds of thousands Malay/Muslim children who attended Christian missionary schools and convents since before Merdeka converted to Christianity? None as far as I know.

Nobody, not even academics, have the absolute freedom of speech. This freedom is limited by laws. Only inside the Parliament can there be “absolute” freedom of speech. The academic’s accusation that Hannah is proselytizing through her book is absolute rubbish, either a figment of his imagination or engineered.

She did not invite any Muslim to convert to Christianity. Academic qualifications are no proof that a person is intelligent or wise.

If the academician is saying that the Malaysian Muslims today are so weak in their faith that merely reading about the faith of others would make them convert (which is impossible in Malaysia, isn’t it?), then he should study why the faith has eroded so much and come up with strategies to address this.

David Dass: The issue is not Kamarul’s academic credentials. The issue is how can an American-educated individual have the views that he has. Is there any evidence of Christians trying to convert Muslims in Malaysia? There will be Muslims who may have a desire to know more about Christianity and who may want to become Christians, but there will not be many.

The politics and laws of this country will not allow evangelical type proselytising among Muslims to take place. The risk of punishment for apostasy are simply too great. The older establishment type churches such as the Catholics, the Anglicans, the Methodists, the Lutherans and the Presbyterians do not evangelise in that way.

Nothing in our law prohibits individuals from writing about their faith experiences. And Muslims have to accept that non Muslims are as intense about their beliefs as Muslims.

So how does someone like Kamarul perceive this as a complaint that he can make? Yet, there are many supporting him. All this is quite bizarre considering the intense state-sponsored attempts to convert non-Muslims to Islam and the support that preachers such as India’s fugitive Zakir Naik gets in Malaysia.

Kamarul should realise that the reaction to his complaint is a reaction to the growing intolerance that is taking place in Malaysia and not a statement about the profound nature of his complaint.

Anonymous 444981488553970: All academic achievements do not make a person wise or cultured, just academically proficient. That’s why you have brilliant scientists that makes bombs or biological or chemical weapons. They may be good academically but bad morally.

So stop this flaunting of your academic qualifications. If you are wise and educated, not academically but morally, your words and actions will speak for itself. In fact, when you start to flaunt your qualifications, it shows already that you have lost and do not have what you claim to have.

Anonymous_1421806811: Only a wise man or a fool will flaunt his qualifications. A wise man will not use it as a passport to claim he is “good” enough but will admit there is still a lot to be learned. A wise man will not become “intellectually stagnant” and continue to do research to improve his knowledge. A wise man will not make unsubstantiated allegations.

A fool on the other hand thinks with his qualifications, he has all the knowledge and no one can ridicule him for making unqualified statements. This reminds us of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang or Zakir Naik doesn’t it?

Allforit: Let’s not hit below the belt. Kamarul Zaman had made an effort to further his education, and that alone is commendable. The issue was about him accusing Hannah Yeoh of proselytizing. That as we know is a very serious offence in Malaysia.

Rightly so, Hannah Yeoh had to defend herself. What happened along the way that things have become so complicated that we are bringing other issues into the fray?

Mushiro: Just like Kamarul, deputy minister Ahmad Maslan has a high CGPA score and is a successful clown in the cabinet. As a lecturer Kamarul has not shown any wisdom but more of narrow religious fanatical views. He has never spoken about any other issues that are so glaring in recent Malaysia but speaks at length on proselytising only after he has seen Yeoh’s book.

Has not Kamarul noticed 1MDB, which is a concern worldwide, the mega corruption in Malaysia, which is affecting all, or the drop in education standards?

Azhar: Sorry, Kamarul. Academic qualifications do not mean that one is educated. For that one needs to be open minded and be able to respect the views of others. Please save us from further embarrassment by listing your academic achievements. They do not mean a thing in the real world as you have so adequately demonstrated.

To be educated one has to be able to think rationally. Is lodging a police report on some parables and excerpts rational? The shameful part is that some “professionals” are trying to hide your folly by citing academic freedom. Shame on the lot.

XED: Universiti Utara Malaysia is ranked in the 800 range in the Times World Ranking. The lecturer should concentrate on helping his university gain higher rankings and thereby greater credibility.

AntiBeng: I graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington, in the late 1970s. It is possible for an average hardworking student to acquire a reasonable grade point average every semester, and perhaps make it to the dean’s list.

I am not sure why Kamarul is talking about it, making it look like he was an outstanding student at Indiana.

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