Hello Everybody!

I was going to take a peek at the forum and then get back to some reading but when I saw this post I was curious. So I clicked and watched Brian McClaren talk. Truth to be told, this is nothing really new as modern Westerners are intrigued by almost anything Eastern. However, the "new found respect" for the ancient traditions and cultures of the East stemming from Hinduism and Buddhism seem to be extended to Islam and clerics all over the world think that because all religions including Christianity exist in relative harmony in the Far East, there must be some good things that can be learnt for the purpose of ecumenism. This is the snare and pitfall of all apologists! Yahweh said to keep away from Baal but here we compromise! These people think that it can lead to peace but Yahweh says, "The ways of peace they know not" and I'm beginning to think this is an understatement and that our Creator is being kind.

Singapore was kicked out from Malaysia in 1965 because they wanted to develop the population based on merit. Surrounded by more than 100 million Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia, the Chinese leadership was afraid that they would be made into a lower class of citizens and that developmental programs would be compromised for the benefit of the lowest denominating factor -- the impoverished Malays who are Muslims. True enough, tiny Singapore has grown by leaps and bounds since their forced independence while resource-rich Malaysia lags behind. Malaysian politicians claim that this difference is because Singapore is small while Malaysia is bigger and has more poor, and they point to the fact that Malaysia still has managed to achieve significant growth while bringing wealth to the country. Blah-blah-blah... .

If you want to read and understand more you should click on www.malaysiakini.com and associated links. Recently, the peaceful street demonstrations have underscored how well the policies favouring Malay Muslims have worked, perhaps at the expense of the other races who practice other religions. Non-Malays are reminded time and again to be tolerant while some Malay politicians come up with statements about bathing the keris (a traditional Malay dagger) in blood, not to question the rights of the Malays and the Islamic religion, and other idiotic suggestions about segregating males and females in supermarket checkout lines, cinemas and buses. The banning of Malay bibles is a good example of religious tolerance in practice, and the random confiscation of English bibles adds to this belief. Many non-Malays (read: non-Muslims) are also leaving the country as they can see that their future and their children's future is already compromised.

And as long as Malaysia and Indonesia wags the tail of the ASEAN bloc and continue to oppress the people of Israel, some of us know that it will not turn out well for these two countries in the long run.

Can it all change? Will we be a really happy family with different strokes for different folks? In the past, many would have said "Yes", but right now not many are saying that it is all rosy and pollyanna, and many are voicing discontent at developmental policies based on racial lines, which in practice, also involves religion. It is simply different here because of the mitigating factors involving all the other races and religions, and has nothing much to do with what Brian McClaren postulates. There is much to write but I shall stop here and just say that he may as well talk from the other end of his torso. Ecumenism is a big word meaning "let's all mess up together till the very end."

Shalom Aleichem