IT was truly heart-warming to read the news on Dec 1 that the chairman of the Conference of Rulers had called upon all leaders to work towards putting an end to religious and racial extremism in the spirit of togetherness. The chairman, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan Tuanku Muhriz Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Munawir, said the new government has to take the opportunity to propel the country to greater heights by uniting all Malaysians, regardless of race and religion.
Responding to his opening speech on the second day of the 260th Meeting of the Conference of Rulers, trade associations called upon every Malaysian to condemn extremist views that endanger racial harmony, and urged politicians to stop playing up racial and religious sentiments that could instil fear and disrupt business.
However, very few Malaysians will admit they contribute to the spread of racial antagonism and religious extremism by allowing their minds to be trapped inside a bubble. From early childhood days, your parents and religious leaders have put your mind inside a bubble to control the flow of intellectual content into your brain. Shut off from any kind of influence that clashes with the notions planted in your mind by the elders, you live oblivious to any truths outside your bubble.
There is little open learning in Malaysia. Almost all Malaysians still categorise the Malays, Indians, Chinese and Others into separate races despite the biological fact that the entirety of Homo Sapiens comprises just one race. There is only the human race.
Before you reached age 18, your parents would have instilled in you the primary importance of your so-called race, whether in terms of culture, talent or entitlement. Without fail, too, the weekly sermons impress upon you the supremacy of your religion. Other religions are impure and you risk going to hell if you visit another place of worship or admire the virtuous practices of another religion.
Intolerance grows out of narrow religious education and bad childhood training. Your mind bubble imprisons you, making you the ground for extremism to take root. This writer smashed his bubble when he entered a public library and out of curiosity read the Bhagavad Gita at age 17+. Before that day, he was aware of only one true religion and only one book containing the Word of God – the Bible.
His awakening happened decades ago. Today, it is far more difficult for any teenagers to gain awakening, as the bubbles enwrapping their minds have grown thicker with doctrinal conservatives in so many religions imparting narrow distorted views in the classrooms.
Some 500 years ago the Muslim emperor Akhbar, one of India’s greatest rulers, observed that the followers of most religions considered their own religion to be exclusively true and the rest unworthy of acceptance. The resultant conflict and disharmony hampered national progress. Hence, Akhbar organised meetings comprising learned men of all religions, as he was convinced that there was truth in all religions and no single religion possessed absolute truth.
Be like Akhbar and smash the ideological bubble. Read all scriptures with the understanding that their contents were determined by the culture, geography, history and politics of that era, region and the customs of its people. Learn that there are two types of verses: Universal and contextual. Verses that promote unselfish morality are universal, meaning that equivalent verses can be found in the scriptures of all religions. This forms the basis for inter-religious collaboration.
As an example, unselfish love is a golden rule found in a diversity of scriptures. Here are verses from just four religions: “Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself.” “Do not wrong him who wrongs you. You should be kind even to those hostile to you.” “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” “Just as a mother protects her only child even at the risk of her own life, so too one should have unbounded love for all beings in the world.” Can you identify the four religions?
The government must compel all religious teachers of every faith to instruct their students in the universality of high ethical values, that all religions stand on common ground in preaching unselfish love. Failure to impart such learning implicates religious education in the breeding of extremism in schools.
While scriptural verses that promote unselfish morality are universal, verses that result in doctrinal belief are contextual. That means the doctrine is valid within its context only, and not universally applicable. A topical example: In the lobby of a Kuala Lumpur hotel stands a festive tree with a placard explaining the birth of a divine child that many believe doctrinally is the “Son of God”.
The term “Son of God” was popular in the ancient civilisations of West Asia-East Mediterranean region, and referred to the birth of a divine child whose mother was a virgin. Among the famous ones, Egypt had a “Son of God” called Osiris, Greece had Dionysus and Rome had Mithras. One of the oldest preserved drawings of antiquity comes from Babylonia and depicts a virgin mother seated next to a tree while her divine son receives gifts. Another picture shows a star hovering above the divine son.
A divine birth on the day of Winter Solstice foretold the coming of spring and, hence, the victory of Light over Darkness. In political usage, the “Son of God” title was conferred upon rulers to secure absolute obedience. Pharoah was “Son of God” and when the title was bestowed on Alexander the Great after his conquest of Egypt, it gained for him the loyalty of Egyptians. Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, took great pains to be acknowledged as the “Son of God” and, hence, bolstered his reign.
Years after Augustus’ death in CE14, a new religion in the empire would procure exclusive use of the title to bestow on its founder known for his role as a world saviour. An equivalent title in the Indian subcontinent was Cakravartin (universal ruler), a term that entered the literature of Hinduism and Buddhism. In China, the equivalent term was “Son of Heaven”, denoting that the emperor was a universal monarch who in theory reigned over the world with the Mandate of Heaven.
The pharoah as “Son of God” also claimed authority over all nations, the world, the sky and the earth with all its creatures. But even with rival supremacist doctrines, convergence is easy to establish. At civilisational level, what is supreme is the central personage. But at the inter-civilisational or global level, what is supreme is the principle behind the person – the noblest ethics and highest norms of good governance that the “Son of God”, the Cakravartin, and the “Son of Heaven” stand for.
The National Unity Ministry must have the courage to dissuade any religion from using exclusivity claims to undermine the authority of other religions. At the same time, the ministry’s core mission should be to harness the combined strengths of all religions in a collaborative effort to instil in every Malaysian the ideal of harmonious, eco-friendly, inclusive living. This is the pathway to lasting transformation.
The writer champions interfaith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
