by Fa Abdul, freemalaysiatoday.com January 11
This reader is tired of how offended most Muslims in Malaysia are over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons and decided to share her own experiences.
When I was 7, my Chinese classmate gave me a chicken sandwich during recess one day. It tasted real good. The next day she told me it was pork. She did not care much to apologise for her mistake. I asked my Ustazah at school what would happen to those who consumed pork and she blatantly said, “Kalau makan babi gerenti masuk neraka jahanam” (Anyone who eats pork is guaranteed of going to hell). I was furious at my friend. But no, I did not carry a rifle to her house to kill her.
When I was 13, I was enrolled in a school located in a small Malay town – Kulim. Some of my agama classmates started calling me Hindu Pariah. Since I am of Indian blood, I was always ridiculed and asked to leave the religious class by the Malay Muslims. I was embarrassed. I was thoroughly offended. But no, I did not carry a gun to school to seek revenge.
When I was 18, I met a super hot lecturer while studying in Regent School of Economics, KL. He had nice things to say about how wonderful I was and how amazingly gorgeous I would be if only I removed my headscarf. He said the headscarf was an insult to my beauty. I smiled and never spoke to him ever again. No, I did not shoot him for messing with my faith.
When I was 25, a neighbour of ours gave us copies of photographs showing Lord Murugan with tears of milk flowing down his face in one of the temples in Penang. He claimed to have witnessed it himself and urged us to follow Hinduism as it was the true religion. I took the photos, looked at them one by one and returned it, thanking him for sharing it with us. And no, I did not visit his home with a gun in my pocket.
When I was 34, a cousin rang me up to share his newly found theory on Islam, Prophets and God. He spoke of the lies in Islam. He ridiculed the Prophets as people who invented the words of God. He questioned the existence of God. I told him he had a very interesting point of view and ended the conversation. I know he was also spreading his new beliefs to others in the family. But no, I did not carry a gun to finish him off.
I am now 40. I recently went out on a date with a handsome hunk, an expat from Germany. He persuaded me to try beer. When he failed, he got me a glass of red wine. “Take a sip, just a sip,” he said in his gentle half-seducing voice. I ordered a Coke instead. Funny but the Coke tasted pretty good. Later that night, I found out my Coke was spiked. Damn, looks like I will be heading to hell for a second round. But no, I did not kill him off either.
Anything can be offensive. Any topic. Any conversation. Any piece of art. Any book. Any thing. The thing is, everyone is offended by something. Even the notion that it is okay to seek revenge when you are offended is well, offensive. But this is exactly what our world has turned into – a very sensitive lot who are offended by anything and everything. But does that make one condone a killing spree? Nothing condones murder. Nothing. Even murder itself.
I am a Muslim who isn’t offended by what Charlie Hebdo did. It was tasteless. It was no art. It wasn’t funny. But I did not hate them for it. Just like I do not hate Salman Rushdie. I simply do not agree with his point of view, that’s about it. I believe God awarded us with the ability to think and rationalise our behaviours for a reason. If we choose to hate everyone and everything that does not fall into the perimeters of our beliefs, we could end up hating lots of things.
Condoning the Charlie Hebdo murder in relation to their insensitive work of art is an unconscionable, sub-human way, disgusting at best and bigoted at worst. If you expect others to act and speak a certain way, or assume others will be as kind or compassionate as you, if you’re offended when they don’t rise to the level of your expectations, you will almost always be offended or on the verge of it. Instead, allow people to be human. They are, after all.
“We should be too big to take offence and too noble to give it.”
- Abraham Lincoln
Fa Abdul is producer/playwright @ Big Nose Productions
