To the uninformed, one might be forgiven if he or she thinks that once one becomes a Muslim, the discrimination that one once faced as an Untouchable @ Dalit / Harijan / Parayan, etc might be a thing of the past.
Not as I have learned. It is shocking to see these unwarranted forms of apartheid being practiced by those who claim to be Muslims.
I will not pretend that there are no such behaviors amongst the Muslims of Malaysia but to see these absurd levels of segregations being allowed to divide and separate the ummah over there in India just makes me seethe with anger and be sad and dismayed simultaneously.
What kind of people do we have there masquerading as the alims, ulema and scholars of Islam whilst at the same moment allow such bias and discrimination fester amongst the obviously confused and ignorant lot of India’s Muslim communities?
Fair enough, we have to accept the fact that even in the life and times of Prophet Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam, there were slaves who were mostly persons belonging to a particular race or ethnicity namely Abyssinians or Africans like Sayyidina Bilal ibni Rabah.
But then when Sayyidina Bilal was freed from his bondage, he was treated as an equal by the early Muslims, Companions of Prophet Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam.
Only those who are ignorant of true Islamic teachings will resort to differentiating between fellow Muslims and go around strutting like a vain peacock claiming to be from this or that lineage, proudly stating to be from the genealogy going back to the Holy Prophet.
To people like this, I’d say that I am from the Prophet of Allah’s lineage too, just like every other person here on Earth! I am also a Son of Prophet Adam Alaihis Salam so do all other human beings!
I am sad to see these unwarranted apartheid system permeate there in India and all other parts of the world.
I call upon those who have a position to change the way things are taking place in India, to work towards abolishing such cruelty.
There is no law in both the Holy Quran or the Prophet’s Hadiths allowing for such a system in the lives of Muslims.
Period!
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Salam and bismillah
If my opinion offended anyone or anything, I apologies first for my ignorance but this is how I view things. I am aware this issue is controversial and sensitive but we are Malaysian. Do not be afraid of the truth, be afraid of ignorance
My point of view regarding this caste thing is that if they are offended, why dont we just stop? Interlok has been labeled as "offending" to the Indian. Caste is something they want to forget and abolish. Why dont we put ourselves in their shoes?
I am not saying that Interlok is at the same level as Satanic Verse but the issue arise from publishing the books is the same. Both are offending. I know Satanic Verse is at another level but I think we can relate the feeling of "offend"ness of both book.
I am not try to shoot down Malay culture but the reason we dont have the kind of feeling like Indian is that we love being the "lower class". We praise and worship our beloved "human master" with rituals that are clearly against our syaria'. Do Muhammad SAW ask us to bow down to him? Do Umar Al-Khattab sit in the palace, wearing yellow magnificent robe? Do Abu Bakar kill whoever make fun of him?
We are muslim. We say that we scared that western culture will harm our way of life. I am more scared that our own cultures are syirik in nature. Having the title of "protector of Islam" is one thing, but what you do for that title is another thing.
To summarise: We Malay dont feel the "insulting" sensation like Indian because we love being the lower class civilian. Time after time, we will let others to step on our head because we like it. If the Indian feel offended, dont use bloody reason like "literacy value" to make thing right. Do we need to read "Satanic Verse" just because we have to see its "literacy value"?
My stance is: Don't do to others what you don't want others do to you
P/S: Im not anti 1Malaysia, Im just anti ignorance
Salam,
Thank you for the post.
Even though in Malaysia we do not see caste such as in India but in my opinion there are some sort of caste system in Malaysia.
For example, we can most of the time see that the front rows of during the Solat was 'reserved' for special people. There should not be such thing in our religion and there should not be such practice. I dont believe that our Prophet SAW have taught us this type of inequality.
Culture should be put aside when it is against the religion.
The previous comment is about Interlok.
For on topic comment,
We Malay do have the untouchable problem also. Indian have many caste, we got two. But we do have subcategories. Let see if I can show them clearly:
Upper Caste:
~Royal families (Even I have no clues what kind of subcategories that they have. We don't have caste? Kiss my knee)
Lower Caste:
~Minister(high rank)/Presidents of political party
~Deputy Minister (low rank)/Ulama (high rank)/Mufti
~Ulama(low rank)/Dr. & Ir./head village/Big business owner/police/those who work as government officer
~Civilian/prepaid seller/blogger/teacher/hawker/oversea university student
~student/local university student/ me 🙂
How to use this formula?
Easy. Im a university student, which mean Im at the lowest caste that can exist in Malaysia. I cant marry a civilian because civilian is much higher than me. Ok, not really. Its a joke but still I cant marry them 🙂
For example, we the lowest caste, don't have the privileges like the working community. We can't disobey the higher caste. We can't even voice out our opinion in the public.
I know people will find my post as ridiculous but its the truth. If you can give me a single evidence to say my caste system is wrong, be my guest.
To make it clear, our caste system is not based on heritage(exception: upper caste), is based on what title do we have. We are a race that love title more than any treasure in the world.