Food for Thought

Raja Petra Kamaruddin posted on his blog with the topic, "Halal and Haram". To be honest, I believe he was giving the wrong message: generalisation of Muslims being a liar, a hypocrite and blasphemous, although what he wanted to do was to show how hypocritical some Muslims are and obviously trying to convey a political message about our politicians. However, there may be some people that were misguided in knowing what Islam is.

I always wanted to correct people’s misconception about Islam but I never had the guts to do so as I am really not well versed in my faith. If I am wrong, please correct me with proper references.

I would like to straighten things up about some things he mentioned:

1. Islam does not allow a Muslim to eat pork. But in dire circumstances, we can do so. To touch a pig is not haram (sinful). You can touch a pig or a dog, it is just that you have to samak the 'touched' areas. Samak means washing your hands with a one part mixture made up of water and clay; six parts water in order to purify oneself from the ‘filth’. Conclusion, you can touch. No sins. Just clean up after you touch.

2. Islam does not discourage a Muslim to wish friends "Merry Christmas and other religious festivals". There is no wrong in doing so, plus it is good to have to relations with people of other religions - it is a good practice to wish other people as our intentions is to maintain good relations with other people. Islam encourages good practices as long it is within the Quran and Sunnah.

I am not well conversed in my faith but I do not like the way Raja Petra Kamaruddin is doing. What he should do was is to mention that the one these are the "oddities" of certain Muslims. He should then correct it with the proper Muslim interpretations and practices as stated in the Quran and Sunnah.

All this while my fellow non-Muslim friends get the wrong message: things like the hijab, women in society and etc. about Islam and I feel that I should at least correct some of them within my limited knowledge in my faith.

Religions are good in nature; it is just some people who would just tarnish the good name of religion. If I'm just as blunt as the others, I could just say that 600 years ago, Christians were just as bad during the Crusades with the Pope, being the religious icon and head, was the most corrupted person on the planet then by having mistresses, out-of-marriage children, power hungry, ordered 'hit jobs' to consolidate his power and so forth. But no, I think that it is just some people, no matter past or present were just capitalising on religion and unfortunately, the Pope then was one of those people who capitalised religion for their own personal gain.

If religion was put to good use, good things would happen. Look at the late Pope John Paul II, he had good qualities. He managed to bring people of other religions closer and he forgave the person who tried to kill him, not many can do that.

Muhammad S.A.W made fundamental changes to Arab society. First, he actually helped to bring the whole Arab people together, an achievement as in general, Arabs then were very brutal and have affiliation to their own tribes. Before his time, women were no more than "sex toys" to men. After Muhammad’s time, women had more rights than they ever had before. Women then had the right to divorce as to just men who could do that. The rituals’ sacrificing young newborn girls (something which was very common then as having a female then was considered bad luck) is no longer practised.

To get things straight, honour killings – the ones practiced by people in the Middle East region is not, I REPEAT, an Islamic practice. It is just Arab culture, which in my opinion is wrong and should not be practised at all.

To my friends out there, just make sure you understand properly about other religions before bashing someone. That will show how ignorant, hypocritical and shallow you are, making no different than the hypocrites.