NARROW viewpoints affect unity, confuse the public and bring about the perception that Malays are not fair, Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikim) director-general Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas told Berita Minggu.
Dr Syed Ali said the action of certain Muslims who make narrow-minded statements or enforce rules that were not taught by religion was disturbing race relations in the country.
He said issues like not being allowed to wish Selamat Deepavali to Hindus and the ban on bringing in non-halal food to school were causing the Malays to be alienated from non-Muslims.
"What is the problem with a non-Muslim bringing in food that contains pork? The food is specifically for them.
"If this attitude persists, later someone will say that Muslims cannot live next to non-Muslims or that Muslims cannot socialise with non-Muslims."
Dr Syed Ali added that there were so many instances these days of things that were considered haram or halal. However. he was confident that a majority of Malays were rational in their relations with other races and did not accept ignorant statements as the truth.
(Monday 11 December, 2006 THE STAR, N32 Focus, Other News & Views)
As I See It...i do agree that majority of malays were rational and would not accept ignorant statement as the truth and in years to come with the emphasis placed on education, we would have more educated lots and the racial problems will be diminished to a certain level.
No comments:
Post a Comment