Last week’s entry in the Nut Graph is here:
By Tricia Yeoh
INCIDENTS belying the fragile state of integration in Malaysia have dominated the news in recent years. A pattern has emerged strongly: we are trapped in a vicious cycle — one that, unless broken, will repeat itself for time immemorial.
Of the significant incidences that have taken place over the last two years, an observer would document these: strong reaction to Article 11 (the group promoting religious freedoms); outcry over the bumiputera corporate equity report by the Centre for Public Policy Studies; demonstration against the Bar Council’s religious conversion forum; more recently, the Ahmad Ismail debacle; ISA arrests of journalist Tan Hoon Cheng, Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok (both have been released) and Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin; outcry over the azan and Jawi signboards; police report against Kok for insulting an egg; and Molotov cocktails thrown into the home of Kok’s family and the former residence of Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan.
Click here to read more.
Tricia, just a brief remark – Sufism is not a “school of thought” in Islam like Wahhabism. It’s simply the inner dimension of the religion and is very much part of mainstream Islam. Indeed, if you consult Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah, he explained how the term tasawwuf itself came into existence, viz. originally it was very much part of Islamic practice that hardly any name was needed for it. Only when gradually this dimension becomes forgotten that the few who cling to it are ascribed a special name. Also, one scholar once remarked that “Sufism was once a reality without a name, but today it’s a name without a reality” (see Martin Lings’ What is Sufism?”).
May I know your resume?
If you say what you really wanna say, you won’t be able to say what you would not really want to say. So, better don’t say if you are not saying what you really wanna say.
Thanks Hazri! All the more reason for us to take it seriously. Granted, I know little about is and will need more time to digest. An educational seminar perhaps, in KL? 🙂