DEC 24 — The recent series of racial and religious polemics has caused a big storm in our country. It is worse when some politicians take advantage of these issues to become heroes so that people will applaud them as true Islamic/Malay protectors.

In return, they expect to get more votes in the next election. They know that Malays can be irrational when it comes to racial and religious issues. Malays have been trapped in a dogmatic circle for too long thus preventing them from thinking rationally.

I am truly impressed with the efforts initiated by Dr Mujahid Yusuf Rawa who organised a dialogue to strengthen ties between Muslims and Christians while other ulamas and ustaz including those in Islamic institutions such as Jakim and Jais failed to do so.

Malays are terrified by a lot of imaginary enemies but Dr Mujahid came up with an idea to have a dialogue with this “imaginary enemy.” I feel such relief knowing there is at least one politician with thoughtful ideas. This is the true Islamic teaching, understanding and getting to know each other.

All these years Malays have been filled with dogmatic values throughout various religious occasions. They believe every single thing preached by their ustaz/ulama without taking a little effort to think it over and verifying those things said.

The outcome is there are lot false Islamic values spread around which subsequently give the wrong impression about Islam to non-Muslims. Words like “progressive” become so strange to them.

When someone comes up with new progressive ideas that are different from their dogmatic values they quickly label that person as liberal, deviant, or a Western agent. This is what happened to Dr Mujahid, Khalid Samad and several progressive leaders in PAS.

One thing I hate about dogmatic people is they like to judge others. When they see a Muslim who does not follow Islamic dress codes, they simply assume that particular person is going to hell.

In Islamic teachings there is always forgiveness for those who commit sins; they just have to ask for it directly from Allah without any intermediary. Allah opens the door of forgiveness at night for His servants who commit sins in daylight. They have failed to portray the true attributes of Allah Almighty. Malays can easily escape from the dogmatic circle by simply using the brains given by Allah.

* Hafiz Ahmad is a final year student of Economics at University of Malaya.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.