In good faith

In good faith

INTER-religious difficulties in the country are being successfully resolved through mediation. According to the chairman of the Committee for the Promotion of Inter-Religious Understanding, Datuk Azman Amin Hassan, who is also the director-general of the Department of National Unity and Integration, out of 320 cases reported to the department, 299 have been solved by mediators trained by the International Islamic University working jointly with the department. Given Malaysia's ethnic and religious plurality, such efforts should be deemed necessary and important because any faith-based differences of opinion can easily be exploited by the ruthless and unscrupulous to foment social unrest. That the inter-faith dialogue comes under the prime minister's portfolio testifies to the emphasis given towards defusing such problems. It is indeed heartening to know that efforts put in place through public policy are actually bearing fruit.

Malaysian politics can all too readily fragment along religious lines and it is common knowledge that religious parochialism can lead zealots astray, and stepping on the toes of the several other communities is only too easy. Unfortunately, while faith itself is meant to bring the best out of humanity, there are aspects of it that when misconstrued can only have negative outcomes. A recent example of inter-ethnic violence poisoned by religious sentiments leading to national disintegration is post-Tito Yugoslavia. Today we speak of the Balkan states of Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. It is a pity that Yugoslavia had to be relegated to history when as a nation it was an economic exemplar of the countries under Soviet influence. Attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt show that even communities that have coexisted for a long time can break out into conflict.

It is, therefore, unrealistic to be dismissive of niggling problems of religion when these divisions may run deep in history. Hard-won economic prosperity alone may not be enough to cement ethnic and religious ties because affluence can bring its own challenges and contestations. Furthermore, piety is not to be cheated with secularism, as the Yugoslav socialist experiment demonstrated. The angst of centuries of religious misunderstanding, passed down the generations, cannot be swept under the carpet. Rather, there is a need to understand the religious grievances voiced by the different communities so as to encourage better understanding between them. An ongoing and continuous inter-faith dialogue builds the bridges that reinforce acceptance, moderation, compromise and mutual help. More of it should be done to lay the cultural foundations of 1Malaysia, which embraces the nation's diverse sensitivities under the banner of Islam as its official religion.

NST Editorial 11/10/2011
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