Should Malaysians Be Divided Over Conflicts In The Middle-East?

PART 3: ISSUES CLOSER TO HOME

How do we Malaysians handle the issue? We have almost no Jews in our country but what if we had? How could it have been affecting relationships. What about Christians. How are they tackling a country whose National Policy is to protest against what they call inhumane actions by the Israelis? How about NON-Christian Malaysians? The final segment of a 3-part series, the first two parts can be read here and here.

3. The Chasm Between Islam And Judaism Is Becoming Deeper Each Day

Well I hate to rain on your parade but data is showing otherwise. There is a much better understanding nowadays, though not as much what we hope it to be, between Judaism and Islam. It has been increasingly clear that Judaism shares much more common things with Islam than Christianity is to either. They both believe in True monotheism without any other permutations of Godhood. The Muslims believe in all the Jewish prophets and recent interviews seem to show an increasing number of Jewish Rabbis acknowledging the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH). There have also been recent reports about Jews in Israel converting to Islam (Google!) apart from some few Rabbis and scholars becoming one too.

See, here is what is important: It does not negate, belittle, abrogate or diminish the sanctity of either religion if either of them endorses the other, because the messages are so identical and that they believe in the same Deity without any other associations!

But the same cannot be said of Christianity. All talks and discussions of Christianity with either religion, if they are to be mutually fruitful, MUST start from a most staunch of premises, namely that the Islamic narrative or the Jewish narrative CANNOT be right. Where Judaism and Islam can be seen to overlap in almost everything and especially among the basic dogmas, Christianity seems to be mutually exclusive: it MUST start from the narratives of either religion to be wrong before anything can proceed. Accepting Muslim or Jewish dogmas MUST necessarily mean that the Christian one cannot be correct, and vice versa. For example, whereas you cannot have Jesus to be a Man-God in Judaism and Islam, it is a pre-rqeuisite point of order in Christianity. So how to proceed?

Do you also know that In Judaism, Jews can go and enter a mosque to pray but they are forbidden to enter a Church? Because that would tantamount to idolatry to them. Both Jews and Muslims shun the Pork, but Christians consume them. Both Jews and Muslims circumcise but Christians do not. Both have similar dietary laws but Christians can eat almost anything under the skies. In airplanes or restaurants in the West, demanding for Kosher food for the muslim is as safe as eating Halal. In fact it is even more so because the Kosher laws of the Jews are stricter than the Halal laws!

That these differences and similarties are only now being explored and discovered, could probably due to the power and availability of Information to anyone wanting it. The Internet has also propelled many debates and discussions between the two faiths. And one of the most surprising things that I ever come across is this series of Youtube videos by Jewish Rabbi Tovia Singer where he talks a lot about how Islam and Judaism are similar but is very firm in establishing how far Christianity had gone from the message of Jesus, who was of course a Jew himself. Do google!

2. Christian Support

We come now to the last two points. Each time we come down a ladder, it gets to be increasingly perplexing to us all. In a nutshell here is the qualm:

As regards to the Jews, mainstream Christianity regards them as something as an anathema. They regard Jews as the ones responsible for having killed Jesus. All “prophecies” of the coming of Jesus that are supposed to have been referenced in the Jewish Old Testament are refuted by them. In addition, the Jewish Talmud have very despicable views on Jesus: that he was not born a miraculous birth, but rather from the illegal union of a prostitute named Mary with a Roman centurion. His miracles are considered as black magic and that he is not presently in heaven, but rather in Hellfire burning in a cauldron of faeces.

Contrast this with the Islamic view which have nothing but praise regarding Jesus: that he was born of a pure virgin with God’s power, and that he worked miracles with the help of God, that he is one of the greatest prophets of God ever, and that he is now in heavenly bliss (and was visited by Prophet Muhammad PBUH in his ascension to heaven), and that he will come in a second coming to rule the world under God’s laws, producing the only time that the world will experience full peace.

And yet, with all this, the Christians opt to side with the killers of their God in this conflict. Why? Now please sit down if you haven’t already and I will explain. And if you already are, then lie down.

It is because of some very skewed eschatology known as Armageddon, Rapture and Second Coming.

You see, some Christians believe that during the end of times there will be a big war called Armageddon between the forces of Good and Evil. The Good is of course the Christians. Evil, well that depends on which age you are living in. It used to be Nazis, then the Russians, with the Chinese not far from that. In short, whoever else that fits the flavour of the day. Just hold your breath and “Muslims” will be next in line.

Then there will be what you call a “Rapture”. This is when a number of Christians will, (get this!), miraculously be snatched away from whatever they are doing—while driving, eating, in a karaoke bar, in the middle of sex etc.—and they will float up to the air, slowly inching towards… I don’t know. Heaven, I guess.

Then only will the the Second Coming happen: Jesus descending from the Sky in his full glory. As God, understand. To come and judge the world. Yup. You and me.

So that is the end-time scenario according to some Christian beliefs. And it is only to some, mind you. Not all Christians. And here’s the cringe: all of these things will NOT happen UNLESS and UNTIL “Israel returns to Zion”. That is, the Jews will take up their homeland again.

Well that explains why they HAD to do the 1948 forced migration of the Jews into the area, and THEN calling the new entity the State of Israel. It wasn’t even called that in the Bible.

Now understand one thing. None of these things were taught by Jesus. They form a set of visions and dreams by Paul and some other later writers who had never met Jesus, in a series of letters and vision recordings of their dreams in a human-written book called Revelations which are included in the bible. Interestingly, some other Christian denominations dismiss these kinds of end-time eschatologies. Some others refute details. Of those who believe in the Rapture, the number of people being floated up to the sky varies: 70,000 then 144,000 then the entire Christians, then zero, none at all.

Well anybody can choose whatever they want to believe in, but when such end time prophecies are held staunchly by those whose fingers are on the Red button of the bomb, then it is certainly a global concern. Equipped with that scenario, they now face things like the Palestinian issue. Can one expect rationality? Already it had affected some small-scale plannings.  One Dave Eschenbach, a real estate agent in USA, tells of the story of how one day his boss announced to his employees not to come to work the following week because of the Rapture. His boss was a firm believer belonging to the Episcopal Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati.

And yet some others, like Lutheran Minister Barbara Rossing, contends that things like the Rapture are nothing more than just a racket, in her book “The Rapture Exposed”.

So brace yourself people. As soon as this Palestine issue is settled and the Palestinians have been obliterated from the face of this earth, expect some of you to be floating into space… towards eternal Bliss and Justice!

1. The Malaysian Question

Now we get to the final, quizzical thing. The number one Elephant-in-the-Room question that everybody is asking as far as the handling of the Palestine issue is concerned, for the Malaysian case. Here is the Question:-

Why is it that mostly, in Malaysia, most of the citizens who do NOT tow the official national policies of dissent towards the injustices done onto the Palestinians, almost always come from the Chinese and Indian communities? Why are the Chinese and Indian citizens in the country SUPPORTING Israel?

Well before I lay down the potential reasons, let us lay down too the following disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1: That in no way is this a racist or bigotted question, and definitely not done to call for the mass condemnation of anybody with this departure-from-norm views. Therefore this statement is done without prejudice. Rather, it is an academic question about a phenomenon which can be verified visibly, tangibly and publicly: go ahead and observe any news and threads discussing the Palestinian issues. Like in Malaysiakini, The Star, NST, Malay Mail or any national newspods at all and you will find most of the ones condemning the condemners almost always have Chinese or Indian names.

Disclaimer 2:  This statement is not a blanket one: that not ALL members of any certain race behave in the manner that they are purported to have. Not all Indians and Chinese support Israel, and there are some Malays who swear by Israel too. But we are talking mainly in terms of majority numbers here. You can’t  just dismiss an entire observable phenomenon just because one or two members show an anomalous trait.

Ok this question is one which needs no answers, and certainly needs no justifications. In fact I don’t think it is against the Law or against the constitution to force any citizen of any country to agree with the foreign policies of their country, unless it is in some of the communist countries in the eastern blocs. In North Korea for example, being at odds with the national ideology is enough to get one executed.

But be that as it may, could it be any other reasons than any of the ones I give in the following, the without-prejudice clause still intact? :-

1. It is PRECISELY because of racial issues. Whatever is held sacred and sanctified by the Malays must NECESSARY be regarded the opposite, mainly BECAUSE they are held by the Malays. The Malay-Muslim hegemony has been an issue of contention by non-Malay and non-Muslims from as far as one can remember, therefore whatever issues that come after will not be viewed in terms of their moral worth but rather in terms of the racial make-up of the supporters.
2. They are not at fault. It just so happens that it is easier to be connived by Zionist propaganda if one is not a Malay-Muslim and views the world from the standpoint of Islamophobia: everything the Malay-Muslim does must NOT be seen as right. Else how can it be established that they are constantly having the wrong dogmas?
3. A non-Muslim have no business in believing whatever the Muslims believe. Besides, Western sources are always more believable, are they not? Take a look at the following sequence of events not very far from whatever is happening presently:-

1. Palestinians go about their daily routine in their slums or concentration camps.
2. More Jewish settlers who just arrived from Europe last week come and harass them in an effort to get more lands than the ones they already evicted these people out of.
3. Skirmishes break out, in an effort to defend their properties, as is expected of any people with dignity guarding the sanctity of their families and belongings.
4. The new settlers bring in the Israeli soldiers to escalate the force. Fighting breaks out, Palestinians throw stones, the only means they had.
5. Soldiers end up shooting civilians, arresting them, and putting some in prisons indefinitely, for “rioting”.
6. Hamas comes in and demands release of innocent prisoners and leaving the area. When they refuse, battle erupts and rockets fired.
7. Israeli soldiers now respond with more non-commensurate force. Huge bombs released, buildings levelled, cities destroyed, providing unobstructed and unopposed opportunities for the settlers to grab more things for sure.

Now here is my painful contention. By supporting the Israeli narratives, the mostly-Chinese and Indian citizens in this country who are supporting them are actually saying that the problem starts from number 6) above!

The reason for their unflinching, undoubting and total support is because there are forces at play that are more diabolical than meets the eye. There are unseen hands handling the marionettes and a greater agenda at play by contending AGAINST any National Policy especially if they are originated by the Muslim-Malay hegemony. Rightly, or Wrongly.

Already there are reports of certain political parties receiving funds and endowments for political and electoral purposes. These come from external bodies camouflaged under neutral-sounding names but are really global arms of the Zionist-based New World Order ideology. A strong Malay-Muslim political hegemony is anathema: it dampens and slows down the diabolical plannings of global control, and therefore must be opposed by whatever means. The Palestine issue, although glaringly wrong in the eyes of the world, is just a basic step.

There you are. My take. So change my mind. – New Malaysia Herald

About the writer: Poet, Pianist, Painter and Technology Buff. Scientist by Profession, Artist by Heart. He may be contacted via apocryphalist.perkasa@gmail.com

Note: The views expressed in this article are that of the writer’s and do not necessarily reflect the stand of the New Malaysia Herald.

Staff Editor

New Malaysia Herald publishes articles, comments and posts from various contributors. We always welcome new content and write up. If you would like to contribute please contact us at : editor@newmalaysiaherald.com

Staff Editor

New Malaysia Herald publishes articles, comments and posts from various contributors. We always welcome new content and write up. If you would like to contribute please contact us at : editor@newmalaysiaherald.com

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