No place for racial and religious supremacy

I believe everyone is created equal. An Indian is created equal as a Chinese who is also created equal as a Malay. And so are the Ibans, Dayaks, and all the ‘dan lain-lain’.

I believe so much that everyone is created equal that I actually even believe that a Christian is created equal as a Hindu who is also created equal as a Muslim, a Taoist, and even a Scientologist.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure not many people share this belief with me. In fact, I’m sure that many people reading this article might not even believe that everyone is created equal.

I recently read an article by popular American essayist Michael Muhammad Knight, a Muslim, who wrote that many white Muslim converts seem to take the religion and think that they alone own it.

Knight, a controversial figure not only in America but also in the Muslim world, explained that many well-known white Muslim converts in America have done this.

He mentioned how Alexander Russell Webb (1846 - 1916), one of the first American converts who significantly promoted Islam publicly, actually did his dakwah.

Webb apparently thought that they were so intellectually superior that everyone else who are practicing Islam in other parts of the world were just not practicing it right.

He had framed his thoughts from the point of view of a white supremacist and that everyone else were just too inferior that their tradition and culture adulterated their practice of the faith.

But that’s not the point of contention in this article. What I do want to discuss is how any certain groups of people who feel that their way of thinking and belief is the only right way is practicing the same elitism as Webb.

This has been happening in Malaysia and I am inclined to mention an article yesterday in a local news website of an interview with retired Court of Appeals judge Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah.

In the article, Mohd Noor had said that large statues of deities of other religions such as Lord Murugan at Batu Caves and Goddess Kuan Yin at a temple in Penang should not be built in the open.

He said that this was against Islam and since Islam is the religion of the country according to the Federal Constitution, it is above every other religion, and outright displays of the statues hurts people and threatens the religion.

I could be wrong, but isn’t this an example of Malay-Muslim supremacy in Malaysia? Keep an open mind and try to indulge me in my argument here just for a while.

I am a Muslim and, personally, I am not hurt in any way when I see Lord Murugan at Batu Caves or Goddess Kuan Yin in Penang. Neither does my faith feel threatened when I see these statues.

In fact, I think they’re quite beautiful and I’ve even brought my little daughter Athena to visit these places before and she was very excited (and she’s still a Muslim, says her birth certificate since she’s a minor).

An although I’m a Muslim and I am convinced that my religion is the right one for me to believe in, I am in no position to say that it is the right religion to someone else who believes in another religion.

He or she of another religion will definitely feel that his or her religion is the right one for him or her to believe in. And, according to our Federal Constitution, it is their right to believe so.

Some of you might argue that if I’m so liberal, than I should also respect the beliefs of people who feel that their religion and race are better than anyone else. To you I say that you’re missing the point.

I respect the right of these people to express their thoughts and opinions. But I don’t have to agree with them and I deserve the right to express my thoughts and opinions, that counter theirs, as well.