One of Lim Guan Eng’s fanboys has responded to this blog. But before I reply him, some illustrations.
Below is actress Nor Aliah Lee, pictured with her ex-husband, the famous film director Aziz M. Osman in March 2008. They divorced in May 2007. During their marriage, the Chinese convert (formerly Vianney Anastasia Lee) wore tudung.
As can be seen in the mStar red dress photo, she took off the tudung after her divorce. The Nona magazine cover of December 2011 credits her as Datin Nor Aliah Lee now, and the tudung is back on.
Another convert celebrity is Daphne Iking, now Dahlia after her second marriage. From the poster (left), it appears that she’ll be in Kota Bharu next month speaking at an event moderated by Ustaz Amin Idris of the Islamic TV channel al-Hijrah.
Malaysians adapt. DAP 2.0 clearly and most quickly adapted post GE12.
A disclaimer is necessary here: It’s not my hair and it’s not my religion. I’m not judgmental either way whether a Muslim woman wears tudung or not. Up to her lah and I can respect an individual’s personal choice.
But we shouldn’t try to bury history and the fact that most locals didn’t used to wear tudung litup. Think of all the various traditional art forms and the Malay women who danced them through the ages.
In Malaysia, because appearances (religious garb) can lend a positive impression, some DAP politicians are hijacking religion and what’s worse, the religion is not even theirs.
Worst of all, most recently at the Feb 18 grand debate, the DAPpers claimed that Chua Soi Lok is disrespectful of Islam. They said this in order to score brownie points with the Malay electorate. Yet these are the same people who refuse to respect the essence of Allah.
Below is a screenshot of the letter to the editor written by Douglas Tan – one of Guan Eng’s chiefest cheerleaders in cyberspace.
It was published in Malaysiakini today under the title ‘Not anti-government, but pro rakyat‘. The same article also appears in his blog as well as in the other usual opposition watering holes like Malaysia Chronicle where he is a columnist, I should expect.
My posting which Douglas declares he finds “generally offensive” is this one — ‘Jangan biar Umno sampai jadi macam DAP‘.
He alleges that I “condemned” him for his Christian faith. You can read for yourself (click above) as to whether his accusation contains any merit.
Whatever I’ve written that alludes to the DAP evangelists and their online flagbearers – such as Thomas Lee who’s the Penang government media consultant and Jackson Ng, an alumnus of a Penang La Salle mission school – is in the context of how their party is exploiting the Christian vote.
And secondly, how some evangelist politicians and their followers have a moral superiority complex and are too fond of casting stones at perceived sinners, especially the MCA president. Portraying the other side as morally inferior has become a leitmotif of their political vocabulary.
The upshot is that Christianity is being made to play a political role for DAP today just as Islam has done for PAS.
Related:
Helen Ang 
Biasalah, people need an object to focus attention.
This is what the opposite-ion is doing.
Just to get votes
By right they should focus on future good things and productivities that they can offer or have already offered(still unfulfilled).
aiya u really take these hare-brained convert (.. at the sound of a keching) sillybrities and their desperado self-hating melei boyz seriously kah.
melei?
the convert you called celebrities…why didnt you call them chingkies? baru la adil kan… typical ignorance third world mentality.
It’s because you were not brought up under a monotheistic religion, Helen. You don’t seem to understand that most Muslims actually feel more kinship towards Christians than the God-less buddhist chinese.
Christians, like Jews, fall under the category of “people of the book.” Therefore, a Malay woman seeing a christian wearing a scarf, however perfunctory, would melt her heart.
I have seen a similar phenomenon in real life. Non-muslim friends who used to show slight interest in the Islamic religion then converted.
Many in my family have married outside the race. But they don’t see it that way. They see it as marrying former christians. So, it’s not even a racial thing, but a religious one. Race is immutable but religion isn’t.
If DAP can adapt to win the hearts of the religious malay by adopting some Islamic practices, then maybe their members can open their hearts to Islam. That’s the usual thought process.
Many decades ago, I met a fundamentalist, heavily bearded Arab in the States. I asked him about his opinion of the black supremacist organisation called “Nation of Islam”. Their beliefs are actually blasphemous but he said he’s totally ok with it. He thought they were on their way to finding the true Islam, and that it is all God’s plan. Over the years, I have seen that he was right.
Non-believers, like you, won’t understand that. You can try, but it’s not an intellectual exercise, it’s an emotional one. Your brain isn’t wired to see it that way.
By the way, the game “six degrees of separation” is supposed to end up with Kevin Bacon, not Douglas Tan.
Tutup aurat belum tentu masuk syurga kalau banyak dosa besar. Tapi kalau tak tutup aurat sah2 berdoa besar boleh masuk neraka. Yang berdosa besar akan diseksa di neraka sehingga mendapat pembalasan untuk setiap satu dosa yg dibuat di dunia.Tapi yang pasti semua orang Islam masuk syurga tetapi muslim yg banyak buat dosa akan masuk syurga paling last dan ditanda menandakan mereka ahli syurga yg banyak melakukan dosa. Manakala orang yg murtad dan bukan menganut agama Allah dan tidak memperakui Nabi Muhammad pesuruh Allah hanya neraka sahaja balasannya. Ini hanya kebenaran dalam Islam. Tetapi Allah menyayangi semua makhlukNya jadi Dia membalas semua kebaikan yang mereka lakukan di dunia secara terus di dunia termasuk bukan muslim. Dan Muslim wajib menghormati semua manusia berbeza agama dengan tidak merendahkan agama manusia lain supaya mereka tidak merendahkan agama Islam. Sorry it sounds macam berdakwah sekejap. Tetapi hanya menjalankan tugas sebagai orang Islam. Maybe the same thing ada dalam setiap agama lain untuk menyampaikan dakwah. Cuma di Malaysia ni, agama Islam diperlihara supaya tiada cubaan membawa orang Islam untuk murtad. Kalau di negara lain, murtad ni banyak berlaku dan dipandang ringan sahaja sebab hak kemanusiaan. Tetapi sesungguhnya dalam Islam tiada paksaan dalam Islam kecuali menjadi kewajipan orang Islam juga menghalang murtad itu berlaku. kalau berlaku juga selepas pelbagai usaha dilakukan, hanya pada Allah sahaja Muslim berserah. Sebab itu murtad adalah perkara berat dalam Islam sebab jika orang Islam buat tak tahu, maka setiap umat Islam akan mendapat dosa.
Apa yg Hannah Yeoh lakukan mungkin sekadar menghormati majlis dan keadaan. Saya tidak tahu pandangan daripada penganut agama lain. Mungkin mereka seperti Helen yang memandang Hannah adalah murtad atau sekadar menjadi evangelis. The same thing happen to PM Najib Razak, Anwar, TGNA. Ia mungkin sekadar menghormati majlis agama lain dan bukan turut serta dalam upacara keagamaan. Cuma dalam Islam, mungkin sewaktu mereka berada dalam upacara seperti keagamaan/kebudayaan itu, malaikat rahmat dan pelindung tiada untuk melindungi orang islam di mana boleh menybabkan syaitan mengambil alih sehingga merosakkan akidah.
Tetapi yg pasti dalam mana2 agama, menggunakan agama dan dipolitikkan sehingga lari darpada kebenaran atau menutup kebenaran adalah perbuatan yang keji. Politik mesti dilakukan mengikut garis panduan agama, bukan mempolitikkan agama untuk menang politik. inilah sebab mengapa ada orang tak paham supaya mengelakkan agama dan politik tu jgn dicampuradukkan untk kepentingan peribadi. Kesannya sudah ada di mana ada pengikut terlalu taksub sehingga menggambarkan ulamak mereka adalah nabi atau seperti nabi. Atau juga mninggalkan amanat sehingga mereka mengatakan itu jihad dan syahid jika memperjuangkannya (seperti kes memali). Ini juga terjadi pada golongan christian sehingga kempen di kepulauan Borneo itu menyatakan undi untuk XXX adalah undi untuk Jesus. Bukankah agama sudah dipolitikkan di sini? Di mana keiklasan berpolitik mengikut panduan agama untuk kesejahteraan semua rakyat yg berbilang agama?
It’s Friday and it’s a holy day for Muslim. I may sound like a preacher and am sorry for readers who dont like it. Please take it in a positive way. =)
Darlyn,
Boleh tanya tak, mana surah dalam al-Quran dan hadis nabi yang menyatakan tidak menutup aurat adalah DOSA BESAR? Setahu saya lah, ada hadis nabi yg menyatakan terdapat 7 dosa besar, dan dalam al-Quran pun ada menyatakan dosa-dosa besar tapi menutup aurat bukan salah satu daripadanya. So, please jaga percakapan supaya betul sebetul betulnya…
Tidak menutup aurat adalah berdosa, tapi bukan berdosa besar. Membunuh, berzina, menduakan Tuhan, etc adalah sebahagian contoh dosa besar.
Melonhead, maaf lambat reply. betul tidak menutup aurat adalah berdosa dan bukan berdosa besar dan saya terkhilaf mengenai itu kerana tidak memberikan penjelasan yang selanjutnya. Tetapi kita harus igt, sesuatu dosa kecil akan menjadi dosa besar jika dilakukan berterus-terusan sehingga pelakunya bertaubat dan beristighfar. Dalam hal ini, jika berterusan tidak menutup aurat sehingga meninggal, bukankah sudah boleh dikatakan berdosa besar.
Imam Ibnul Qayyim pernah berkata: “Dosa-dosa besar biasanya disertai dengan rasa malu dan takut serta anggapan besar atas dosa tersebut, sedang dosa kecil biasanya tidak demikian. Bahkan yang biasa adalah bahawa dosa kecil sering disertai dengan kurangnya rasa malu, tidak adanya perhatian dan rasa takut, serta anggapan remeh atas dosa yang dilakukan, padahal melakukannya adalah tingkatan dosa yang tinggi (tahdzib madarij as salikin hal 185-186).
“Janganlah engkau melihat kepada besar dan kecilnya dosa, tetapi lihatlah kepada siapa engkau berbuat maksiat.” Maksudnya, yg berdosa tetap berdosa tidak kira besar atau kecil. Dan, sekadar berkongsi, saya juga baru tahu bahawa dosa besar ini ada lebih daripada 7 (16 dan mungkin lebih). Ada byk rujukan online dan boleh google. Tapi lebih bagus bertanya terus kepada orang yg mempunyai lebih pengetahuan seperti ustaz/ustazah/pegawai agama.
Thanks atas teguran =)
Sekadar renungan bersama, hanya Allah sahaja yang boleh menilai sama ada pelaku dosa melakukan dosa besar atau kecil. Apa yang kita ada (sunnah, hadis, Al-Quran) adalah panduan untuk mendisiplinkan diri supaya tidak terpesong akidah daripada agama Islam. Mungkin silap saya terlalu cepat menghukum, dan terima kasih sekali lagi mengingatkan saya.
When you wrote Ridhuan Tee is more malay than malay themselves, I couldn’t help myself to reply.
He is chinese-muslim, his concern is Islam, and yes, if you say he is more Islamist than an average malay-muslim, I totally agree.
Comparing Ridhuan Tee and Hannah Yeoh is like comparing apple to pineapple..
Ridhuan Tee is not a politician, while Hannah is. Ridhuan Tee put Islam above his race ( even though he always wrote about malays, but bear in mind, if there is no definition ” a Malay must be muslim” in constituency, I bet he won’t bother to write anything about Malays.). He admit that he is a chinese
Hannah Teoh, in the other hand, always portrayed herself as a good christian, a Malaysian Malaysia where race is not a matter, but put her daughter race as chinese, although the father is Indian.
Hannah – with tudung picture is just her political characteristic. By definition, politic are:
1. Using or marked by prudence, expedience, and shrewdness; artful.
2. Using, displaying, or proceeding from policy; judicious: a politic decision.
3. Crafty; cunning.
Hannah is (1) and (3).
Your disclaimer is funny. Since tudung is not even cultural. It is a requirement. Perhaps you acknowledged that since u use ” didn’t used to wear tudung litup”…which means now is different. The cultural dance was already here when Islam reached this oriental. It is cultural not religion. ( I always listen to program with muallaf in IKIM.fm, where I now know that non-malays always refer to muallaf as ” masuk melayu”, which is actually not true, but by constituency, it is kind of valid).
But yet I agree, wore tudung for the sake of political motive is nasty.
This commenter is correct.
Non-muslims tend to use Malay and Muslim interchangeably.
Most of them don’t know anything about Islam outside of the Malaysian context, so that’s part of the problem.
Hannah is a political animal. Can that qualify as a ‘race’, I wonder. Just being rhetorical.
Also you can’t lump RT with HY. They are different species.
I tend to concur.
There is one thing respecting all races and religions and show the respect via wearing appropriate attires and displaying correct behavior.
But Hannah believes in Bangsa Malaysia / Malaysian First, which means there is only one race and that Malaysians should not differentiate themselves as Malays, Chinese and Indians.
Why how does wearing Malay costumes for a Malay function reconcile with her Bangsa Malaysia principles ? Shouldn’t she reject wearing of ethnic costumes as BN style racial poltics ?
Agree, RT is a joker, cannot compare.
______________________________________________________________________________________
And HY is not? — Helen
Hannah Yeoh covered up as a matter of respect as she was at an event predominated by Malays and Muslims.
This shows respect on her part and i’m sure the people there were happy she did so.
Thus to be sneering in your comments towards hers shows us that you lack her class….
Ai .. they shud cover up.Nothing much to see. Non- issue for many of us. Apologies to those with bad taste ;)