Toleransi minoriti, kesopanan majoriti

Merujuk komentar Dr Kua Kia Soong yang bertajuk "Slaughtering Cattle and Educational Values" yang disiarkan pada 28 Oktober, ternyata benar terdapat banyak ruang pendidikan dan nilai setempat yang tidak dipertimbangkan Kementerian Pendidikan dalam menangani isu berkaitan penyembelihan korban di kawasan sekolah.

Pendedahan asas kenegaraan

Pendidikan yang holistik akan mampu membentuk pelajar yang mampu menyelesaikan konflik dengan aman, menggunakan pertimbangan tepat dalam keadaan kritikal dan teguh dalam menyatakan kebenaran.

Elemen-elemen ini menjadi lebih penting sebagai pelajar yang membesar dalam sebuah negara majmuk yang bertunjangkan Islam seperti Malaysia.

Dalam membina elemen ini dalam konteks Malaysia, pemahaman awal kepada asas kenegaraan perlu diperkukuhkan melalui pengenalan kepada Perlembagaan Negara seawal mungkin.

Penghayatan kepada Perkara 11 Perlembagaan Malaysia khususnya harus menyediakan semua rakyat tentang hakikat bahawa ajaran dan amalan Islam akan terlihat dan dipraktikkan di mana-mana sahaja secara meluas dan bebas, sama ada di ruang persendirian mahupun awam, termasuklah institusi kerajaan seperti sekolah.

Ini adalah pemandangan lumrah di mana-mana negara di mana identiti dan imejnya akan dicorakkan secara semula jadi oleh komuniti majoriti.

Pembelajaran luar kelas

Pembelajaran di luar kelas merupakan pendekatan penting dalam memperkayakan para pelajar dengan pengalaman dan membantu pengaplikasian kurikulum secara amali.

Terdapat banyak dapatan kajian menunjukkan manfaat besar kepada pelajar yang didedahkan dengan pembelajaran luar kelas secara konsisten dan terpandu.

Perayaan korban membuka ruang pembelajaran sebegini khususnya kepada pelajar Muslim untuk mendekati, memerhati dan melibatkan diri secara terpandu dalam keseluruhan prosesnya, seperti yang dipelajari dalam silibus Pendidikan Islam.

Oleh itu, wajar jika pihak kementerian menggalakkan guru untuk membawa pelajar ke lokasi korban untuk memanfaatkan peluang experiential learning ini.

Bukan itu sahaja, pengurusan sekolah patut mempelawa masyarakat setempat untuk melakukan korban di padang sekolah terutamanya di bandar-bandar besar, yang dimaklumi kurang tanah lapang yang sesuai.

Pendidikan jujur

Pendidikan yang baik ialah yang melibatkan penyampaian berterus terang, jujur dan berasaskan fakta.

Mengkategorikan proses penyembelihan yang dilakukan dengan kaedah yang betul sebagai kezaliman sehingga boleh mencetus kecenderungan membunuh merupakan cara mendidik yang cuai, tidak jujur dan boleh dikatakan berniat jahat.

Berdasarkan kajian yang diterbitkan, proses penyembelihan secara Islam didapati tidak menzalimi haiwan.

Bahkan dalam laporan oleh seorang saintis haiwan dan pakar industri ternakan di AS, beliau mengesahkan bahawa kaedah sembelihan sama ada tanpa mahu pun dengan renjatan boleh digunapakai apabila dilakukan dengan betul.

Keindahan pendidikan yang dilaksanakan dengan jujur dan berterus-terang terserlah apabila ia dapat menyemai sikap belas kasihan terhadap haiwan dan kesedaran untuk menjaga haiwan dengan tertib, walaupun topiknya ialah penyembelihan.

Menguruskan perbezaan

Dalam konteks Malaysia, menguruskan perbezaan antara agama dan kaum sangat penting dalam mengekalkan keharmonian.

Keharmonian ini telah dinikmati selama berdekad-dekad kerana wujudnya toleransi kelompok minoriti yang dibalas dengan kesopanan kelompok majoriti.

Manifestasi hubungan baik ini dapat kita lihat melalui sikap guru besar sekolah yang menjadi tumpuan dalam isu ini dalam mengurus sensitiviti perkara tersebut.

Guru besar itu menunjukkan sikap sopannya dengan mengambil pandangan kakitangan bukan Muslim, lalu bersama-sama mengusahakan langkah kawalan bagi memisahkan murid yang tidak boleh terlibat dalam aktiviti itu.

Langkah itu diambil walaupun beliau mempunyai kuasa pemutus sebagai ketua di sekolah itu.

Nilai sebegini patut diberi penekanan di kelas-kelas untuk dihayati dan diamalkan.

Keharmonian ini tidak patut dijadikan tebusan oleh sebilangan kecil mereka yang giat mempersoalkan hak-hak kelompok majoriti sehingga mahu mengheret komuniti minoriti yang kebanyakannya sangat mesra.

Kesimpulannya, amalan korban yang berlangsung setahun sekali ini boleh diperhalusi untuk diterapkan dalam sistem pendidikan negara.

Kementerian Pendidikan wajar mempertimbangkan untuk mengaplikasikannya kerana manfaatnya jika diolah dengan baik mampu merentas semua kelompok pelajar di samping menyumbang dalam mengekalkan keharmonian negara untuk jangka masa panjang.

Just a brotherly reply to Ravinder Singh

I truly felt sorry when seeing my fellow Malaysians become the victims of their own gullibility.

And I truly hope that in the case of Ravinder Singh, he is not suffering from a permanent one. I am referring to his piece yesterday which seemed to be written in response to a news report. It is hoped that by now you (Ravinder) have discovered that the news report was actually referring to the article that originally appeared here.

If you have read the original article and comprehended it (it was in Malay by the way), I am sure you could be on the same page with me in that the whole purpose and intent of the article was addressed to Muslims.

It was meant to correct, based on the verses of Al Quran, two unfortunate statements made by two young men. The correction was necessary to avoid their misguided understanding on the subject from spreading further among us Muslims.

If you have to know more, it is normal for Muslims to remind each other to return to the Al Quran and the deeds of the Prophet especially when a misunderstanding is prevailing within the public.

It was just a reminding message from one concerned Muslim to another. So you may want to rethink your statement on who was actually minding other people’s business or “menjaga tepi kain orang” in this case.

It was not Isma’s responsibility if the context of the original article was thrown out the window, the focus of the message was shifted at will, and a juicy byline was deployed by the news providers. Thus, you may want to consider saving your rage (and your list of questions) over something else more worthwhile.

Speaking of the news providers, we all know that the people in this industry make a living through ads placement (some though not so secretive foreign funds, but that is a story for another time). They are neck and neck in the competition for revenue, so spinning stories become the means for some providers to increase their readership which in turn, will bring more income.

While we may be powerless to determine how the media people would choreograph a particular story to generate a desired public reaction, it is completely within our control to determine how we respond to it.

The news may be so packaged to rile some group of people up against another, for reasons only Allah knows. Some readers bite the bait while some don’t. Some double-checked the sources while some chose to skip dinner and start typing in rage.

It is like when you read Utusan-lah, Ravinder. If you can put some kind of a brain filter when reading through it, why can’t you put the same filter on when reading from these online providers? Is it because they have more news that soothe your political inclination that makes you decide to relax your intellectual judgment?

It is ironic that in this age of fast and free information, we are now slowed down by the needs to verify the materials, especially the sensational ones, which reach our screen.

Users really need to be extra wise so as not to be the victims of misinformation and misperception that is willed upon us through such substandard journalism. We just cannot afford to allow ourselves to be so credulous nowadays.

Returning to the subject of your grouses, you are correct that it is not Isma’s business whether a non-Muslim goes to hell or not. We never said it is ours, too. The second line of the original article stressed very clearly on whose authority it lies with.

Also, we never asked people to disrespect a dead person either (you can gather this from the original title if you understand it properly). The article only asked the Muslims not to overdo with their respect of the deceased to the point of violating the Islamic principles.

We just made it our business to provide reminders to our Muslim brothers and sisters on what the Al Quran says, and how the Prophet did, with regards to our actions as well as the happenings in this beloved country of ours. It is a necessity for all Muslims to recognise that we can say and do all things as long as it does not transgress the boundaries set by Allah and the Prophet.

It may sound unfair to you when you go through and study some of the words of Allah in the Al Quran. But fairness is what you will find in the Al Quran, through the glad tidings and the warnings to the mankind, through the promises of rewards as well as the threats of punishment.

And just so you know, none of us, the Isma members, can even guarantee ourselves that we will go straight to heaven when we die, although we are Muslims. However this never discourages us, in fact it gives us motivation to keep striving to be better Muslims.

Then again, to be fair to you, would you accept our hand and allow us to guide you to Islam and discover that Allah is indeed All Merciful, All Just and All Forgiving?

False alarms, Islam bashing go together nowadays

The recent decisions made within days of each other by the authority- the cancellation of two pool parties and the banning of the film ‘Noah’- were indeed commendable. These were courageous moves given the growing push by some quarters for absolute freedom to be accorded to the people of this country.

However, the action especially on the heinous pool parties could and should have been taken much earlier. While a movie depicting the life of a prophet does not come by that often, immoral pool parties unfortunately do. Simply Google it and you can find many of these are held from time to time and most are publicly accessible with the entry fee is just as minimal as its clothing requirement.

It is a growing trend apparently so the authority should be on a better alert and not wait for public uneasiness to escalate before deciding on an action. You don’t have to be a local culture expert to know that bikini parties have no place in Malaysia.

Back to those ‘freedom fighters’, it is interesting to see how their reaction to the actions on these events went from a typical display of disappointment to something along the line of a hysteria when the word ‘Islam’ or ‘Muslims’ appeared in the justification of that actions. One reporter from The Malay Mail Online fits this description aptly by going to the extent of penning a full Sunday column just to make known how disturbed he was in learning the underlining basis of the decisions.

Two wild parties cancelled and a movie banned are all he required to proclaim to the world that “there is no freedom of choice in this country”. Reading that particular line of his simply reminds me of the way CNN provides coverage of the MH370 search mission.

Sometimes it makes you wonder whether they really understand the actual message of freedom that they keep harping on. It is a sure recipe for chaos to happen if their definition is to go by when they insist that one must not made to be “bound by the same moral code that other groups adhere to”.

Just imagine a society wherein one group insists on using experimental drugs while another believes engaging in pedophile acts is a valid choice of value. Surely this is not what these people have in mind when they insisted on having total freedom. But the hesitance to start introducing ethical boundaries on freedom is totally understandable because to look silly contradicting themselves is the last thing they will want to do.

The reality is these people just despise the fact they have to acknowledge the moral provisions in Islam are indeed suitable and beneficial to the society wellbeing. Had the objection to these events come from non-Islamic entities, the response would surely be different. (It was expected though liberal and feminist groups like Sisters In Islam would step forward as the objectification of females are rampant in these kind of events but of course no such thing happened).

It is indeed strange to still find people who fail to recognize why Islam and its values feature profoundly in this country as if they were born only yesterday. And to say that the inclusion of Islam as the religion of the federation was almost an afterthought is an utter insult to the history of this country and its forefathers who fought centuries of colonization and still able to preserve its identity. And like it or not, this is how it will stay.

 The problem with these people is that they are holding to and propagating this false logic that to apply one set of values equals to eliminating the others (unless of course the other values threaten its very existence, which is not the case here). 

One need not be an investigative journalist to discover that in the case of ‘Noah’, a group of Christian leaders were invited for a preview and consulted by the Home Ministry in its process of arriving to the eventual decision. It was wrong then to continue crying and selling false alarms that other groups were ignored and their concerns were not considered.

A responsible reporter would surely not hide this fact unless a certain view has already been intended even before materials were gathered- a view that is bent on portraying Islam in as bad an image as it possibly could.

It is sad to see that some people will just use every means and opportunity to pursue their peculiar agenda, in this case unchecked freedom of choice and Islam bashing, even including sacrificing the ethics of their own line of work and in the process sowing discord among the society.

You may blame this ‘error’ to the dry season, or maybe the full moon, or perhaps a haircut gone wrong but to earn a living by bashing Islam at every opportunity is just as shameful as earning one by misusing your own profession.