I tend to view the above remark, in context of Azlan’s other online comments, as more reactionary rather than deliberate malice. This bloke appears to have some resentment against the majority-Chinese community in Singapore. And I empathise. We Chinese have our fair share of ‘racist’ moments, choosing not to register our children at certain primary schools or to live in certain neighbourhoods because of the ‘many Malays’ who are ‘naughty and lazy’ who might be a negative influence on our children. We also often associate Islam with terrorism, especially since the unfortunate World Trade Center tragedy in 2001, and as such makes all sorts of caricatures of our fellow Malay-Muslim Singaporeans which in my opinion makes us look really stupid.
It is a matter of principle I spurn Chinese-only primary schools like Poi Ching and Tao Nan – they are gated communities of Sinophilic elitism. Bah!
The netizen who filed a police report against Azlan also mentioned a more absurd post by Azlan in the Today Newspaper which mocks Christianity as being ‘about having orgies and sex’ among other caricatured assertions made obviously out of ignorance. And provocation. Yes – Azlan made that outrageous claim in reply to a ‘Christian’ who associated Muslims with terrorists and accused the Prophet Muhammad of being a false prophet who was also lecherous by having so many wives. No conscionable Muslim will take that lying down! I am not surprised Azlan retaliated by reitering the orthodox Islamic position that Jesus is NOT divine – and that the Christian trinitarian doctrine is tantamount to tritheism.
I would too if I were Muslim.
Unless Azlan has made previous remarks ridiculing Christianity which were unprovoked, there appears to be more than meets the eye to just a Malay-Muslim bloke trying to incite racial-religious discord. The ‘Christian’ who has obviously no knowledge of Islam should be admonished for his idiotic comments in the first place. If Azlan is charged, so should the ‘Christian’. I am not surprised if the ‘Christian’ happens to be the netizen who filed the police report.
What about the shameless alumnus from Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) who joked about Halal pork and Halal condoms? That buffoon in my opinion is the more insidious character and the one who should be punished with the full force of the law. It is just too bad for Azlan that the pompous ACSian is in PAP’s good books.
Azlan however, should probably learn a thing or two about Christianity, preferably from a CDF-approved Roman Catholic theologian or a conservative evangelical Protestant theologian, before making any more of these laughable accusations against the Holy Faith. Some Muslim religious teachers tend to rubbish Christianity just as some Christian pastors and teachers tend to rubbish Islam. I have learnt a long time ago never to learn about a religion from a non-practitioner, let alone one from another faith tradition.
Zhou Hongjie
*The writer blogs at http://sparrowsandsandcastles.wordpress.com/