A while back several years ago, a friend called up from Ipoh on a Sunday. He sounded very emotional and asked me why I was not there at the vicinity of a church. He said that they had gathered and surrounded it because of word that a mass conversion was about to take place. There already many people inside the church, he confided. I told him to get out of there because it was a hoax. I said that Christians pray mass on Sundays so there is nothing unusual with the many people going to church on that day. My friend simply huffed saying that he got the information of the purported conversion through people of authority. It seemed that someone with clout had gone on preaching about mass conversions or apostasy. It turned out to be untrue after all but had left an indelible mark on everyone, with some still not accepting that it was just a futile ruse.
I remember an incident in my daughter's school when she reported that she was bodily searched by teachers looking for blasphemous symbols. They were looking for crosses supposedly being worn by subjecting schoolgirls to embarrassing searches. Again, someone had spread the incredible news that some of our girls were being converted by wearing such crosses.
Then, there was the ridiculous rumour of the holy water thing. Word had it that a sprinkle of such priestly water can turn someone away from his or her faith. It had the magic powers of breaking the shahadah or the testimony of faith. Again, people became unduly worried and suspicious. Defence of the faith had become reduced to dealing with absurd threats. I asked Animah Ferrar, a Muslim scholar who was previously Catholic about such matters at a seminar and she assured us that Catholics do not associate any power or magic with such rituals. Muslims ought to know better.
A funny anecdote on conjured up threats was when a much hyped speaker introduced to his audience a hand signal in his motivational talk. This hand signal was purportedly about secret Satanic gestures for Black Metal worshippers. This infamous hand signal was becoming popular among teens loafing about in shopping malls around the country. The signal was in the form of putting up the thumb, forefinger and last finger. It looks like a devil with two horns and a tail, if you look at it that way. Luckily, a member of the audience who was familiar with working with the deaf and sign language as well as adolescent teens straightened the issue with the sign. She pointed out that in standard sign language it is the short form for the letters I, L and Y meaning I love you. So teenagers adopted this as their gestures reflecting their coming of age which may be morally questionable and problematic but definitely not Satanic!
Indeed much jive and hype had been made of the heavy or black metal thing but it seems to be a passing phase but well spun among captive Malay audience. Moral challenges facing our youth are indeed grave but solutions have to be forthright and must not be led by ignorance or deception.
Another dubious story was a tragic and moving one. It involved a apostate daughter who visited his father's shop with her fiancé resulting in humiliating her father and beating him up. The person known to infamously relate this incredulous story is one of those defecting MP's who made his name back then from regurgitating such believable myths and far fetched apostasy threats.
Hence, it is not surprising that the propaganda agenda has been raised or reduced to such incendiary reporting and Christian baiting. After all, everyday Utusan bashes the Chinese and tries its best to terminate a character called Anwar Ibrahim.
When the ruling fears lost of political support base, it begins to undergo lost of political nerves, leading to lost of morality. It then becomes unjust in its actions, spirals out of control and condones lies and deception. It has lost the spirit of Malaysia, it only retains slogans which it cannot fulfil.
The Malaysian public deserves much better. They cannot be treated as fools be they whatever race, colour or creed.
We must uphold truth and justice and disassociate ourselves from bigots, extremists, provocateurs, political opportunists and desperados who trade the future for short term ill-gotten gains.
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