This is part of an excellent article by Jacqueline Ann Surin, who is the Editor of The Nut Graph, which was published there today:
What possessed the protesters?
By Jacqueline Ann Surin
jacquelinesurin@thenutgraph.com
WHAT possessed them? That's the question I'd like to ask the protesters who desecrated a cow head on 28 Aug 2009 after Friday prayers to object the building of a Hindu temple in Section 23, Shah Alam.
We know that it's not Islam that teaches intolerance of and disrespect toward other religious beliefs, nor is it Islam that preaches violence or force if Muslims don't get their way. We also know that it is really not Malaysian or Malay custom at all to be so obnoxious, threatening and crude. For all my life as a Malaysian, I have known Malay customs to be gentle, sophisticated and inclusive. This is most likely because the "Malay" race was actually historically constructed; its customs weaved from a convergence of different continents and cultures.
So, if neither Islam nor Malay custom drove the 50 protesters to publicly despoil a sacred Hindu creature and to threaten bloodshed because of a Hindu temple, what was it?
Possessed by superiority
My hunch is that these protesters were emboldened by a culture of Malay Muslim superiority that has been carefully cultivated and strategically stoked by the Umno-led government, Malay Muslim politicians from Umno, PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), and by the judiciary both civil and syariah.
Please read the entire article here: http://thenutgraph.com/what-possessed-the-protesters
If you like the quality of journalism practiced by The Nut Graph, please consider supporting them. Their investors cannot continue funding them, and they will have to close down if they cannot find adequate support.
As far as I know, the Nut Graph is the only Malaysian news organisation to have published a statement of their journalistic principles, that you can hold them to. If we do not support good journalism when we have it, then we have only ourselves to blame when we are left with the likes of Azmi Anshar and the mainstream media telling us what to think.
Sincerely,
Malaysian Heart
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