The religious versus the infidels

Though I usually do not read this site, but I find this article interesting
http://www.malaysia-today.net/loonyMY/2006/03/time-silent-majority-became-outraged.htm#comments

Strange how looking for information on child caregivers in Malaysia (for the purpose of work) brought me to this site. :D


The world seems to work like this, depending on where you are and what your creed of belief is

Christian versus the infidels
Muslims versus the infidels

Erm, do the Judaists have this dichotomy as well? Maybe, but correct me if I am wrong

Judaists versus the infidels


Interesting isn't it, that the religions of the Book, have this I-am-better-than-you-because-God-has-chosen me attitude?

Everytime anyone write any piece of apologist article on their religion, it will be our Brothers and Sisters in (Christianity/Islam) and everyone else is the lost sheep that needs salvation. I was told that the very definition of Muslim, from its Arabic root, means "submitting to God". Hence, the argument runs, if you submit to God, you are a Muslim. And Islam itself, from all the bits and pieces I've seen, should actually be marketed more as a Guiding Principle/Bible (which is actually what the Quran means) which God has given to the world to aid the lost, rather than as a stringent, orthodox piece of work that forces you into strict compliance. Whether in Islam or Christiniaty, are we able to shift our mindset to think that what may be "encoded" many not necessarily be as "set in stone" as we think?

I do know, within Christianity, some more fundamental groups actually create this dichotomous differentiation between "believers" and "Christians". For them, believers are those who believe in God and Jesus but do not necessary practice their beliefs according to the strict doctrine promulgated by these groups. So, there, within Christianity, we have even more subsets that were not in the Bible before.

And it is interesting that in Islam, God is not given an actual Gender. In Malay, God is referred to as "Nya" (bearing in mind that the Malay language used in Islam is very strongly influenced by the Arabic language, as they even share the same script in the past, and that is the script I intend to learn) while in the English Language Christian Bible, there is a strong representation of a masculinised entity.

And of course, within both religions, there are many misogynists, or misogynistic type of regulations pertaining to the woman, which I believe, were more due to psychologically influence interpretations of the text rather than anything else.

And interestingly, Muslims (I am now using this term in the more traditional way of equating this group of people with people who practice the fiqh tenets in Islam) who claim to know a lot about other groups of people are actually as deluded as the Christians who claim that Islam promotes repression of people. Living in a Muslim country, I know just how untrue that statement is. In fact, scholars will have a field day if they come and study the top misconceptions that people of different religions have of each other.

Practices and traditions imported wholesale from the evangelists of Gulf lands (and more recently Pakistan) for Islam and Europe (and more recently US) for Christianity without any form of digestion and integration into the existing traditions in Malaysia have, I believe, promoted some form isolationist tendecides between these different groups. We forget that there are many other groups from these two religions who are living in harmony with their lands and neigbours in other parts of Asia, barring the more extreme sects. And now, we are trying to bring this kind of exclusivity way of thinking via "mission work" to them.