– Hafiz Ahmad
The Malaysian Insider
December 24, 2013

The recent series of racial and religious polemics have caused a big storm in our country. It is worse when some politicians take advantage of these issues to become heroes so that people will applaud them as true Islamic/Malays protector. In return, they expect to get more votes in the next election.

They know that the Malays easily become irrational when it comes to racial and religious issues. The Malays have been trapped in a dogmatic circle for too long thus preventing them from thinking rationally.

I am truly impressed with Mujahid Yusuf Rawa’s effort, organising a dialogue to strengthen the bridge between Islam and Christianity; others, including the ulama and ustaz and those in Islamic institutions such as Jakim and Jais, have failed to do it.

The Malays are terrified with a lot of imaginary enemies then suddenly Mujahid came up with an idea to have a dialogue with this “imaginary enemy”. I feel such a relief when knowing there is at least one politician with thoughtful idea. This is the true Islamic teaching and understanding.

All these years, Malays have been filled with dogmatic values throughout various religious occasions. They believe and are convinced by every single thing preached by their ustaz or ulama, without taking little effort to think it over and verify things said.

The outcome is that there are lot false Islamic values spread among Malays, which subsequently give wrong the impression about Islam from non-Muslims. Words like “progressive” becomes so strange to them. When someone comes up with new progressive idea that is different from their dogmatic values they embraced all these times.

They quickly labelled as liberal, deviant, Western agent. This is what happened to Mujahid, Khalid Samad and several progressive leaders in PAS.

One thing I hate about dogmatic people is that they like to judge others. When they see a Muslim that does not follow Islamic dress codes, they simply assume that particular person is going to hell. In Islamic teaching there is always forgiveness for those who commit sins; they just have to ask for it directly from Allah without any

intermediary. Allah opens the door of forgiveness at night for His servants, those commit sin at daylight. They have failed to portray the true attributes of Allah Almighty. Malays can easily escape themselves from dogmatic circle by simply use their brains given by Allah. – December 24, 2013.