[Guest Contribution Piece]
Over a year ago, I shared my opinion on the “Hari Raya with a dog” saga.
I AM NOT INSULTED BY MUSLIMS HAVING A DOG AS A PET: A YOUNG SINGAPOREAN MUSLIM PERSPECTIVE
Many things have happened since then and I have decided to leave Islam for a Secular and Atheist/Humanist life.
A SMALL VIEW INTO THE LIFE OF MURTADS (EX-MUSLIM)
Regarding to the “touch a dog” event, I was amused and a bit hopeful that Muslims in Malaysia are starting to think a little bit more rationally not give in to the social norms regarding the world’s second most popular pet. Muslims who never experienced the loving nature of dogs are really losing out on one of experiences of living. Or at the very least, it helps remove some of the stigma and phobias surrounding the four legged friend.
I have previously explained in my Op-piece last year that the belief that dogs are impure comes from hadiths which are recording of people who claimed that they heard Muhammad said something, some are hundreds of years after Muhammad’s death. There are no mentions about dogs being impure in the Quran. So, it would be normal to question documents which in modern days would have been dismissed as gossips. In this era with free flow of information, many people simply do not accept teaching and facts at face value. People cross reference, fact check and determine for themselves if a document or teaching a legitimate one or not.
And for the thousand people who showed up to the event, it shows that some muslims are willing to go that extra step to experience new discoveries, challenge old beliefs and see with their own eyes what many of us were denied experiencing from young. The simple act of touching and accepting a dog’s love.
So why is there a great backlash against this event? Why some are willing to go so far as sending death threats to the organizers? The short answer is that many fear that events like this will cause many muslims to become like me, an exmuslim.
I and many other exmuslims were freed from our religion because of one thing. We question and challenged our old beliefs. We simply refuse to keep listening to the religious authorities at face value. Eventually, we cross referenced our beliefs with other belief system in the world and came to the realization that all religions are man-made. So we shed our beliefs in the invisible sky god and prefer to live a secular human life. And we are a danger to Islam itself.
Islam is religion and just like all other religions is man-made. But more than that, Islam is not just a personal religion; it is a political system as well with many people placed in power through sheer faith alone. Rich Ustaz, Datos, Ayatollah and other religious leaders and organization are in power through the unquestioning faith of the Muslims in Islam.
And acts like the “touch a dog” event, are a danger to their power. It invites people to challenge religious authority, question societal norm and worst of all change their opinions on the religion itself, from the simple act of rejecting a questionable hadith to the entire religion itself.
I hope this explains why some people with go to extreme lengths to silence differing views in the religion. We live in a crazy world where some people are in power because people believe some people understands the invisible sky god better. It will only be a matter of time where secular and scientific reasoning take over as the dominant system of the world.
And to those who still believe, I invite you to question EVERYTHING. There are nothing too sacred to be questioned.
Singapore Exmuslim
TRS Contributor
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