Religious bigots Malaysians have become

FOCUS on MALAYSIA #1: ... the question of "proselytizing" is here again .. of "Christians spreading Christianity to Muslims" .. isn't this a political strategy to create fear amongst the people and next, a savior will come to the rescue? The process of "Islamization" is ongoing since time immemorial and so too has "Christian civilizing mission" ... what is there to fight against in a monotheistic context of believe? Why instill fear of worldviews that are supposed to be similar wherein one complements each other .. unless those fear-mongers target people of lower cognitive-class consciousness and choose to play this dangerous game of religious hatred ...? Have we not seen the consequence of this in the case of church burnings, temple demolition, cow-head dragging? Can't you sober up, Malaysians? Why don't you experts sit down and craft an educational program of awareness of the importance of building bridges of faith and help the next generation understand each other so that they will become "world-wise" and can talk sense about race, religion, creed, class .. and help each other understand what it means to be a "spiritual being framed cross-culturally"?. Politicians spend too much wasting time neglecting this aspect of nation-building and let religious bigots run around on a rampage to show-off their idiotic-religious pride ... shallow understanding of the evolution of religion, the nature of god and the ways to teach tolerance and understanding. Bigots many have become. Isn't religion about "making connections between the spirit and the divine" and a precondition of it is to understand the universality of the religious experience, of the phenomenology of belief? Malaysians, after 55 years of claiming to be "independent from the shackles of colonialism", what have you achieved? What would Jesus and Muhammad say to the current regime and the hatemongers ...? Did Islam not borrow heavily from Jewish, Sabean, and Christian sources to construct its doctrine ... ? "read ... Iqra' ... read ... " as Islam tells its followers .. read ... for is not the greatest enemy of knowledge the illusion of wisdom ...? -- ar

 ... if only religious bigots would empty their minds and embark upon the journey to understand the essence of each religion and how they are manifested in the rites, rituals, and rationality of grasping the glimpse of the divine ... opening up opportunities to learn about the universality of themes , Malaysia would avoid future conflicts that has ravaged many a multi-religious country.

instead ofinstilling fears, why not provide hope in learning? ... isn't the believe in god, the rites and rituals, the objects of devotion, the mantra spoken, the nature of the self, salvation, and the idea of soteriology and cosmogeny .. all underlaid by the same foundation of the "I meeting the Thou"? why not teach the idea of multiple paths s to the same destination? even the atheists and humanists have a sense of living a good and ethical life without god, by not instilling hatred towards those who believe in god. why not each believer think rationally and start reading each others' worldview?

there is beauty in the idea of samsara, jihad, providence, law of manu, cycle of karma, of becoming a "buddha" of reaching the world of the makrifatullah, of "arriving at moksha", of realizing that "the lord jesus is alive in oneself" .. all these can be explored and open up ideas of consciousness in looking at each other as one human race trying to understand the mysterious, the divine, the never-changing self, the soul in multiple transitions, etc. a "boddhistava evolving" .. but how are we to open these doors when far away from the entrance of these, bigots build barricades of barbed wires pulled out from the inside of the abyss of their souls ... ahhh ... if only one understands ... - ar