Jaya Jusco Bukit Tinggi Tomorrow, the 25th of December, is Christmas. Just like in any other parts of the world, Christmas is being observed on a grand scale in Malaysia, more so by those in the commerce world. All shopping malls compete with each other to come up with better christmas decorations. Some have "White Christmas" as their theme, while some with a more down to earth local Christmas scenarios. Posted here are 4 photos taken at 4 different locations.
While the general public seem to be enjoying themselves celebrating each other traditions, there are those in the government machinery who deem it fit to dampened the joyous spirit by barring the local Catholics from referring their God as "Allah". It seems that only in Malaysia "Allah" is an exclusive name of the Muslims' God and therefore can't be shared by others of different faiths. Though it is a fact that "Allah" is the term used by Arabic-speaking Christians when referring to God i.e. God The Father, it is not common though for non-Arabic speaking Christians to refer their God The father as "Allah". Though to a certain extent I do wonder why the insistence of calling God The Father as Allah, when every other Christians from outside the Arabic world associate "Allah" to the Muslim God exclusively, I still think that this policy of not allowing Catholics to call God The Father "Allah" is simply due to the suspicious and local centric minds on the part of the officials.
The CurveWhile the suspicious minds are busily at work in Malaysia, their counterparts in Australia are equally busy and more aggressive too. If Catholics in Malaysia could no longer call their God "Allah", Muslims in Camden, Australia can't even have their own Islamic School. To the Camden's community, an Islamic School is no more than an institution of producing terrorists instead of giving an avenue for the Muslim young to learn their religion and therefore be spiritually guided in leading their lives. I guess to some, to have soulless persons is better than having religiously guided people.
I guess suspicious minds will always be around us, but as a plain commoner, my only wish is for everyone to have a nice time during this joyous season.
Holiday Inn Glenmarie Just like previous Christmas, we will be visiting both my left and right neighbours as well as paying a visit to my former neighbour's place to wish them "Merry Christmas".
Paul, my former neighbour passed away a few months back. So this year's Christmas, if ever they're celebrating would be the first year they're observing Christmas without the man who used to be the pillar of the house. Life have been difficult for them for quite a while even before Paul passed away. Losing his job and going in and out of hospital had taken a toll on their lives. I sincerely hope that they have managed to straightened things up.
Subang Parade To all Christians, on behalf of the J&Fs Bunch, I wish you a Merry Christmas.
Jasni AJ
4 comments:
Assalamualaikum..
Back to basic... Mind setting..
Masyarakat kita ni mempunyai mind setting yang lebih kurang sama jugak macam zaman dulu-dulu. Islam itu iman, Allah itu milik orang islam.
Saya masih teringat jiran saya semasa kecil dahulu adalah orang india berugam hindu. Semua orang tahu mereka memuja dewa-dewi kepercayaan mereka. Suatu hari saya agak terkejut semasa berbual dengan mereka apabila mereka merujuk tuhan yang terbesar adalah tuhan 'Alla' (ikut slang mereka). Mereka memberitahu saya semua tuhan2 mereka dibawah tuhan 'Alla'.
Kes kedua, rakan saya seorang beragama budha. mereka juga mengatakan tuhan teragung adalah Allah.
Yang membezakan antara mereka dengan muslim adalah kepercayaan kita hanya kepada satu tuhan iaitu Allah, manakala mereka mempercayai adanya tuhan lain yang mesti disembah juga.
Allah itu ialah nama yang empunya Dzat. Dan orang islam tidak menyembah nama tetapi Dzat itu sendiri. Kalau muslim menyembah nama, maka Dzat itu mempunyai 99 lagi nama.. nama yang mana hendak disembah?
Seperkara lagi, Allah itu bukan milik orang muslim sahaja tetapi milik setiap hamba Allah termasuk haiwan, tumbuhan dan segala apa yang ada di langit, dibumi juga lautan.
Jangan 'sinonim'kan sesuatu dengan sesuatu yang lain. Nanti jadi macam orang Barat.. sebut islam, maka pengganaslah yang dibayangkan. Itu jumud namanya.
Wallahualam, subhanallah..
Lang..I agree with you, its back to mind setting, but in this case, very primitive mind setting.
While we want to desperately move forward, embrace, respect and accept everyone's race and religion (and Malaysia is the BEST place on earth for this), we still have deranged people cooking up all sorts of "stories" just to be in the limelight. Dont these people have anything else better to do? When are they going to get it in their thick skulls (cant say much about the brains) that we, people, multi-racial and religious, do live harmoniously together for a long long time. So, we dont need idiots to remind us what can be used or cant be done.
A few of my Muslim friends attended a church wedding recently. They were not there to pray, they were there to support and witness a marriage of a good friend. No one ever doubt of their purpose to be there, certainly not themselves. So, why is it we constantly have "others" telling us what can or cannot be said, done etc.
Thanks Lang, Thanks Marykate.
Marykate, are you back from Bangkok or are you surfing from Bangkok?
Any election related rioting there?
Jasni AJ
HI Jasni
Back from Bangkok oredi!! and you have to visit Bangkok, its a shopping paradise and a wonderful place, this is my 10th visit there as I go at least twice a year!! No riot or anything, but we see 2 teams of people obviously. The educated against Taksin and almost everyone on the street is pro-Taksin. Take your family there, airasia is relatively cheap. The hotel I stayed is right in front of the Arab street in town, so plenty of halal food :)
Post a Comment