FMT LETTER: From Ravinder Singh, via e-mail
“Itu syarikat kafir pun tidak akan buat begini,” vented Dr Aliff Aiman, referring to the recent termination of 20 employees by the PKNS, including himself.
Just who are those that are being called ‘kafirs’? It certainly sounds that he was saying even the non-Muslim companies would not do what a state-owned (Muslim?) company did.
So, non-Muslim are ‘kafirs’? All of them, or just some of them? Why?
The word ‘kafir’ has also been heard over the public address system of masjids. Again, who are the persons being called by this name? To hear this word over the loudspeakers of the masjids could mean that its use is sanctioned by the government as the sermons are vetted by the government.
In today’s context, the word ‘kafir’ is a derogatory word. So, is derogatory name-calling something that is sanctioned by Islam?
A few years back, the Malay novel ‘interlok’ was made compulsory reading for Form 4 school children. It contained the word ‘p****h’ that offended the Indians and created a lot of anger. It was finally removed.
Around that time too, the word ‘k****g’ made the Indian Muslims angry. It was agreed they should not be referred to with this derogatory word, although it was not considered derogatory decades ago.
In the US, the African-Americans used to be called ‘nigger’. This created a furor and the word is not heard nowadays.
There was even a toothpaste under the brand name of ‘Darkie’, with the picture of a dark man wearing a top-hat and showing his teeth. It was manufactured in Shanghai by the Hawley & Hazel Chemical Company.
The Africans found this derogatory and made a hue and cry and in 1989 the name changed to ‘Darlie’ with a different picture of a top-hatted man.
Well, it is time the word ‘kafir’ be removed from the Malaysian vocabulary if we are sincere in wanting to repair the broken bridges between peoples of the different races, religions and cultures that have lived together in harmony for decades.
We can’t have public name-calling by one race or religion of the others and at the same time talk of unity. I don’t think Islam sanctions derogatory name-calling of the non-Muslims.
There is no need for anyone, including the government, to try and justify calling the non-Muslims ‘kafirs’. Just stop doing it.
Would the Unity and National Integration Minister Joseph Kurup please comment on this.
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I must say I have to agree with what Ravinder Singh wrote. Nowadays, the use of the word ‘kafir’ against someone (whether Muslim or non-Muslim) is akin to calling that person ‘mother-fucker’. It is not the word itself that is offensive, though, but in what context you use it is that makes it offensive.
For that matter, if a non-Malay were to show a disgusted face in front of a Malay and utter ‘Melayu’, while using the same tone of voice that one would use when you say ‘dog shit’, the word ‘Melayu’ would also be considered an insult — although that Malay may be an anak jati or 100% pure Malay. (I think you know what I am saying here).
In fact, if a Malay were to walk away from, say, a Chinese hawker, after failing to get the discount that he wanted, and utter ‘Cina’ while using a disgusted tone of voice, for sure that Malay meant the word ‘Cina’ as an insult although that Chinese is no doubt Chinese or Cina.
So see how words can be insulting although the word itself is not an insulting word because the insult is in your tone of voice and the look on your face when you use that word.
I doubt, however, the Unity and National Integration Minister, Joseph Kurup, can comment on this, as Ravinder Singh wants him to. I, however, will. And to do that we will need to refer to the 109th chapter of the Qur’an, Surat Al-Kāfirūn (The Disbelievers). This is the sixth chapter from the end (the Qur’an has 114 chapters).
This chapter, which has six verses, starts with the verse Qul ya ayyuha al-kafirun (pronounced Kulya ayuhal kaafiroon), which means, “Say, O disbelievers.” Kafirun or kafir means disbelievers or infidels and is mentioned a few times in the Qur’an in many verses such as 4:101, 9:123, 47:4, 48:29, 66:9, 28:86, 2:191, 9:29, 47:4, etc.
In fact, the Bible, too, makes quite a number of references to infidels or unbelievers and even asks us to smite them. And some Christians will proudly tell you that the bulk (I said bulk, not all) of Islamic teachings come from Christianity, especially the stories of the prophets and of the creation of humankind, etc.
To get the Malaysian government to ban the word kafir or infidel (or removed from the Malaysian vocabulary, as Ravinder Singh demanded) would mean the Qur’an plus the Bible would need to be rewritten. And herein lies the problem.
To the Christians, all those who do not accept Jesus Christ are unbelievers, non-believers or disbelievers and hence infidels or kafir and to the Muslims all those who do not accept Prophet Muhammad are also unbelievers, non-believers or disbelievers and hence infidels or kafir.
There is no way to work around this and any Christian or Muslim who denies this is a bloody liar who has never read or does not understand their own holy books.
Remember at one time when even PAS condemned Umno for collaborating with the kafir MCA, MIC, Gerakan and so on? And now Umno is asking PAS, after labelling Umno as a kafir party, why are they now collaborating with the kafir DAP? And Anwar Ibrahim back in the late 1970s also used to condemn the Umno leaders for their kafir ways and he warned Muslims that those who act like kafir (like wearing coats and ties) become kafir.
The ‘isu kafir-mengkafir’ (as it was called then) started back in the late 1970s when Anwar was heading ABIM and heightened in the 1980s soon after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad took over as Prime Minister (and Anwar joined Umno) — and when PAS wanted to discredit Umno as being non-Islamic in its perjuangan or struggle.
So, my dear Ravinder Singh, while I agree wholeheartedly with you (especially since many Malays-Muslims have also labelled me as a kafir, which, of course, is meant as an insult) your problem is not that easy to resolve and neither Unity and National Integration Minister Joseph Kurup nor the Malaysian government can do anything about it.
