NOV 29 — I think by now we all know that Datuk Hasan Ali is a religious zealot who would say and do anything in the name of Islam to the point of defaming the religion and those who worship it as paranoid idiots. For me, that realisation came a long time ago when he decided raiding a 7-Eleven for beer here in Shah Alam as a ‘crusade’ against sin. But somehow, he still manages to astound me as to what he thinks Christians are doing to make Muslims become apostates.

In his latest paranoid endeavour to make Muslims dumber than usual, Datuk Hasan Ali states that solar-powered audio bibles are now the latest trend in helping Muslims commit apostasy. This, of course, is in tune with the rest of his accusations; fliers in malls and priests in hospitals offering solace to the dying and sick.

I thank Allah at least the people from Himpun are making enough sense to look at Hasan Ali with a cocked eyebrow and state that he’s way off balance on this one.

Personally I cannot understand why a Muslim who wants to commit apostasy would bother buying an audio gadget reciting the Bible when they can just download it from Piratebay or perhaps a more legal source for practically nothing. There are podcasts, websites offering PDF files, and even mobile phone downloads that will in fact provide the same effect. If anything, I would have expected the solar-powered audio bible to be a gadget highlighted in Mobile World Magazine under their Cool Gadgets section. Even then, I’m guessing someone’s going to write in promoting a solar-powered audio Quran for their next issue.

Truth be told, I have to pose this question to the Muslims. Are we so without faith and trust in our own ummah that an audio bible can somehow cause us to turn away from Allah Almighty? In fact, is it truly a threat to even listen to an audio copy of the Bible in an effort to learn?

Only through knowledge can Islamic faith take root. Is this not the main focus of why Muhammad pbuH was sent to the Jahiliyah?

Knowledge and the pursuit of it has always been the trademark of Muslims. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t have invented cool words like ‘azimuth’ to prove it. Somewhere down the line of history the Islamic community has not progressed, but instead regressed to the point we are at now, where the faith of the dying, the alcoholic, the gambler, the sick and the needy and now perhaps even the audiophile Bible gadget collector/listener can suddenly be labelled as an apostate not due to his faith in Allah, but by paranoid schizophrenics who have no better agenda to hawk.

And the worst part of all these shenanigans is that instead of dealing with the issues at hand, people like Hasan Ali and Himpun would rather go about spewing nonsensical drivel than do something more powerful with their time.

How about lobbying for religious institutions in every state to ensure that hospitals have an imam on duty to counsel the sick and the dying? How about speaking to malls to disallow the distribution of any fliers of ANY RELIGION in a mall, since it is a form of disturbance that makes people uncomfortable?

How about lobbying for adult courses in religious studies for those who apparently didn’t get enough of it after 12 years in both primary and secondary schools?

You already have people going around parks at night to so-call ‘cegah maksiat’ and even nailing warnings to every gazebo in Taman Tasik Shah Alam. Why not use the same resources to educate the ummah and even raise the welfare of the ummah instead of spending more cash on a new building?

The truth is that while there are those who want to do more to ensure that the Muslims remain in the religion, there is more to it than wanting to gather a million Muslims in a stadium, which was a dumb idea, or even protesting an Elton John concert, another subsequent dumb idea after a string of dumb ideas. The only way to undo apostasy is to ensure that the ummah is well cared for, and the only people I see doing such a duty to the point of revulsion for having to say it is TV3’s “Bersamamu”.

If one were to look at apostates, if you can find one, their main loss of faith is not that in God; but a loss of faith in men, particularly our own religious men who speak much but do not do enough for the welfare of the ummah. The loss of faith in the concept of an ummah, a society that cares for every single person living in a 44-house radius, is the major reason Muslims turn on their own. It’s not the solar-powered Bible; it’s not the fliers given out at the mall; and it’s not even the money that Christians can offer them, per se.

It is the two core ingredients that have been missing from the Muslim community in today’s world: compassion and care for their fellow brothers and sisters of the religion.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.