“Herod represents the dark side of the gospel. He recognizes something about Jesus that in our sentiment we fail to see: that the birth of this child is a threat to his kingdom, a threat to that kind of domination and rule. Jesus challenges the very power structures of this evil age.” – Martin Jalleh

How many educated Romans really believed in their deities, whether Jupiter, Mars Vulcan etc? Yet they persecuted the Christians, and unless they “converted” and dropped the pinch of incense on the altar of these Gods, they would be thrown into arena of the Coliseum to face lions & gladiators. So was Jesus, his teachings were a threat to the established hierarchy of power. Herod was shocked when Jesus proclaimed another truer kingdom – Kingdom of God- than Herod’s own backed by Rome’s imperial armies. Herod tried to deal with the threat by trying to kill Jesus while he was still a baby – by killing all new borns. Where Herod failed, the Jewish High Priests, who grew uncomfortable when Jesus proclaimed that he was the Messiah, subsequently succeeded. Led by Caiphas, they had Jesus arrested and urged Pilate for his crucifixion.

The persecutors and oppressors of Jesus and Christians were the persecutors and oppressors of not just that age but every age and for all times. It was never really a religious conflict. It’s always a clash of basic & prosaic interest regarding Power, Wealth, Positions, Money and Privileges in which religion or often political ideology is used and abused as an excuse by those in power and access to wealth to preserve existing order and their vested interests. In the same way Jesus was viewed as a crank by his persecutors and oppressors – and a danger to their interests and had to be put away, so were guys like Raja Petra Kamaruddin (Fan Yew Teng) (in the case of S’pore’s PAP, Lim Chin Siong) likewise viewed a danger to existing power structure and privileges and face prosecution for sedition or criminal defamation. 2000 years ago Socrates who taught the youths to take on a questioning attitude was also charged for corruption of their minds and forced to die by drinking poison unless he otherwise renounced his philosophy. The Christians themselves, who were earlier persecuted by Romans, later turned persecutors themselves as when Martin Luther was ex-communicated when he came up with reformist thinking, protestant maid, Joan of Arc was hounded and burnt on the stake when feudal lords (using religion again) felt offended and threatened by her doctrines. No less Copernicus, Galileo, Galilei, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler were all persecuted by the Church because their telescopic observations that the earth was round and revolved around the sun challenged the political authority/orthodoxy of the Church that had taken the position that the earth was centre of universe!

Likewise Ketuanan Rakyat – and to an extent 1 Malaysia or Middle Malaysia – had to be attacked because they are a threat to the existing vested interest of power and money built around the concept of Ketuanan Melayu and the NEP.

There is really no conflict of religions or political ideology unless one means religion or political ideology is used as a pretext/excuse to protect privileges against counter ideas inimical to or in derogation of those vested interests….

For man is Janus two faced, one having the compassion to take care of underdogs, to pursue truth and justice and to persevere against all odds to fight oppression – and the other the wicked and selfish side that protects all privileges and entitlement vested and punish others that threatened that. This conflict between the Good and Bad of our nature has been raging in eternal contestation since time immemorial.