More important for Zakar and Zikir Naik

The presence of an Indian Muslim interfaith debator, Dr Zakir Naik attracted 30,000 in Kuala Terengganu.

That agitated some segment of the Hindu community that IGP had to initially cancel the scheduled Melaka do. The Hindu were upset of a statement Zakir Naik made during a debate with a Hindu in India that had offended them.

It is quite the usual exchanges in an inter-faith debate about my religion is right but your's is wrong. The Muslims seemed to feel nothing wrong with that, but when something is said about Islam, they can be equally emotional.

Keling being Keling, they can dished out but lack patience and tend to be emotional and easily agitated when are dished back. They now using this as an excuse to take their dispute into our country.

Some will say Malay or Muslim can be the same too. We will not dispute that.

Anyway wattaheck, lets not be hypocritical. All religion bitch about other religion. It is not the ideal thing to do but it happens all the time, in the open or behind close door. Muslims say something about Christian's trinity and Christians make remarks about Allah moon god and Prophet Muhammad having many wives including a child.

So the Christians should not be offended about the close door session to Muslims at UiTM about Christian threat.

An organised and focused evangelical movement for mass conversion of Muslims to Christianity in this country is an open secret. Not all denominations but it exist. So why should they be upset of Muslims discussing among themselves of this threat?

To Christians, propagating Christianity is a cardinal duty. Guess it is same of all other faith, Muslims included, to propagate God's message. Each faith's version of God's message, off course. Except for Buddhist, Christians or Muslims or Hindus are fanatical about this

Diversion

When Hindraf and Indian members of DAP got vocal and demanded to get this "satan" out of the country, it is no more about Zakir Naik's deemed offensive words to Hindu in India. It has turned political and the motive to agitate an interfaith conflict for next GE is obvious.

It is no secret that Hindu Sangam works closely with Hindraf. poor MIC had to join the fry to not be left out in the Indian political race.

And, these bugger went to the point of dramatising a bomb threat at P Ramasamy office. It is emulating Teresa Kok's red paint at office door. So wayang Tamil ...

Anyway, that drama serves to make it difficult for police to tahan this racist agitator. At one time, Ramasamy challenged Malays to reignite May 13. Police should have taken him and his counter party for trying to invoke May 13 again.

What we cannot understand is what does May 13 got to do with Indians or Hindu?

It is indicative that this Indian dog is minding for DAP. And, these days DAP got Malay dogs as in Amanah. Dato Nizar Jamaluddin and the horny entertainer and Tun M's pinch hitter, Mat Sabu as part of package.

Deputy CM of Penang could be creating a diversion for Lim Guan Eng who is in a hot soup over allegation of corruption in the purchase of his home in Jalan Pinhorn and the link to the development of Taman Manggis.

Notice the bag under his eyes.

Frankly as a Facebooker wrote here, it is "buang masa".

It's a Keling problem!

Another thing we cannot understand is why these Kelings have to bring their conflict at Tanah Besar Keling to this country?

And to the point of doing a wayang Tamil. May have offended a Mamak this morning when we said this a wee bit to frank. Allow us to explain our point. 

We have been living in peace and harmony with great tolerance for various races and religion. By right, Malaysian Muslims should stop bringing such preachers from India and Indonesia but instead be preaching to these countries how to live in peace and harmony.

In this respect, Sabahans and Sarawakians should be preaching about living in peace and harmony to Semananjung. Endless adversarial and slandering politics. 

Please appreciate the fact that Zakir Naik comes from a country with long history of clashes between different faiths and races. His combative style of debate is the wrong orientation for Malaysia.

Off course, we expect to get criticised from fellow Muslims for saying so.

There is an argument that claimed although Muslims are minority in India, Zakir Naik is free to give public talk on differences of religion. He even operate a television program on Islam viewed by millions of Muslims and non-Muslims. The claim is there is no incidents of quarrel between Hindus and Muslims.

Yeah, sure ....

Generally, the Muslim public and "ulamak" came out in defense of Zakir. [See one of the FB dedicated for Zakir here]. They see no issue with Zakir. He is said to be open and inviting to dissenting views in his dialogues. Sure, it is to whack the bugger to pieces.

Another argument is Prophet Abraham went to the extent to destroying idols and blamed it on the Principal deity for it to prove his point. It may be suitable for the times so they felt it is all well in a public debate.

And, one argument puts it that Zakir have been quoting from the Quran and Hadith, so what is wrong.

Our concern is whether he is interpreting it right in accordance with the epistemology of knowledge or just literal self interpretation. His resume only tells of his ability to memorise Quran, and Christian and Hindu scriptures.

Security concern

The Muslims have generally criticised IGP for being cautious in maintaining peace and harmony. They cited Zakir as a former recipient of the Maal Hijrah award. Islam is "official religion" but who is ruling and dictating things around?

The mamak IGP has since conceded. A response can only be expected from the Hindu. So do not be surprise a radical Hindu preacher be brought in from India as Hindraf retaliation.

Interestingly, our opposition sympathiser friends are coming out to defend Zakir too. They were so open and liberal on the kalimah Allah, Anwar's sodomy conviction and many other interfaith issues in-sync with PKR, pre-GE 13 PAS, and various left leaning Muslim NGOs. But now supporting Zakir Naik.

Hipokrit tahi hijau ....

This time around, all Muslim groups and political parties, including PAS and Amanah are for Zakir Naik to speak. Bet they would not mind to see Zakir speak in Penang at Ramasamy's area in Peral. The combative Zakir would not mind.

We have been following Zakir and the late Ahmad Deedat for years. Yes, they are great debators, capable in the power of reasoning and serve the purpose for their more hostile environment. So you feel syok into thinking you've won a debate. But does it serve any purpose, more so it's suitability in Malaysia.

After a long while of listening to them and the shock and awe has faded, we realised they do not say anything out of the ordinary and of deep intellect. They are no different than typical political arguments.

In fact, Zakir's combativeness way have gone to the point of insulting Hindu God, and have been reported to not be received well by Muslims and clergymen in India too [read here and here]. Off course, it is a subjective and most likely biased opinion. However, there is justification to look at Zakir Naik suspicously.

There is the accusation that he is preaching Wahabism, and defended ISIS. He is allegedly funded by the Wahabi of Saudi. The Saudi never deny Iran's accusation of them funding ISIS. This association can be a concern.

Wahabi has a tendency to be militant, thus it is likely that Wahabi are working with American (as Hillary Clinton pointed out in a Senate hearing) to support ISIS.

Will expect someone raise about the Saudi donation to Najib because Malaysia is against ISIS. 1MDB also has syiah Qatari as partners, so leave 1MDB out for a while.
 
There is nothing seriously wrong with Wahabi or more accurately the Salafi. They are generally Sunni and in many areas we are quite in agreement. Their problem is they tend to simplify things.

The bigger concern with Wahabi is their tendency not to keep their views within themselves or limited circle but to openly brand other Muslims not in sync with their practises as kafir. We will not rewind past incidents in Kelantan and Terengganu.

Sometimes it is hard to identify Wahabi. Like the syiah, they have a tendency to practise taqiyah till the situation suited them. at times, the talkative ones may reveal something of themselves like this You Tube video here allegedly did.

One indicator of a Wahabi is their animosity towards syiah as Zakir expressed. Not accusing yet but saying there are concerns.  

Some say Zakir argued using power of reasoning and logic. It is useful tool for debate. Fine, but remember that religion is based on faith. And, theology is body of knowledge developed over centuries. Is it guided by knowledge or simplistic logic?

Wahabi, syiah, Islam Liberal and anti hadith all use logic and end up misguided. So who is Zakir's guru? Still it is questions for police and religous authorities to do research.

Some say he is a good debator and converted non-Muslims into Islam. Unfortunately, oratary skill does not impress us. One aspiring Prime Minister had great oratarial skill.

How are we to ascertain other than the instant conversion we see happening on stage during his talks.

Real dakwah

It goes back to the characteristic of preachers or pendakwah.

A pendakwah should have three important qualities; ilmu (knowledge), amal (application and practise of ilmu) and adab (proper and exemplary conduct).  

Zakir serve a certain purpose but may not be exemplary for Malaysia.

So does the likes of Perlis Mufti Dr Asri, and "Ustaz" Azhar Idrus that do not potray the right adab. We are not partisan as we have reservations of pro-BN preachers like Dato Mashitah, Dato Kazem and those brown envelope driven ones.

This is something we wish to share. The Perlis Mufti and former MB of Perlis, Dato Seri Shaidan Kassim have been at the forefront in questioning religious establishment and preaching Wahabism.

It goes to the ridiculous point of Shahidan wanted to organise a debate of himself against Dato Dr Jamil Khir in cabinet. This exuberence can be dangerous and eventually lean towards a mild version of kafir mengkafir. Coincidentally, Dr Asri is supportive of  Zakir Naik.

No doubt they are bureaucratic and structured. It must be understood that the religious establishment is playing the role of protector of faith for the masses. The less knowledgeable ones look to them for guidance.

All these non-mainstream ideas have a potential to be dangerous. They tend to be divisive when they turn critical towards other approaches of Islam. There is a tendency towards fanaticism.

To understand the need to protect the faith of the masses, look up on the mystical incident between Sunan Ampel and Sheikh Siti Jenar.

Since we are touching on mysticism and sufism, Zakir Naik is not important in the scheme of things to argue over. He is just another eloquent speaker and celebrity preacher which usually does not add much to existing body of knowledge.

More important that our "zikir" is embodied within our heart and soul, manifested in our actions, and deeds reached heaven. For now, we should focus on this month of Rejab to prepare for Ramadan than quarrel over Zakir Naik. There is always others to listen and mesmerise over. 

While those with obligation and responsibility, ensure their Zakar Naik. Quite sure Zakhir would agree.

* Edited 13/4 8:32 AM