Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Do you think Malays not affected by religious extremism? By Mariam Mokhtar
Friday, July 14, 2023
Malaysiakini : So, who told the Muslims about secularism and the political entity
known as the Holy Roman Empire? Did they learn this during history
lessons in our state schools? Did our Muslim clerics
tell them, but wasn’t their focus on the dress code? It can’t have been
through ‘general knowledge’ as we know the Malaysian reading public can
only manage a pitiful two pages a year.
Perhaps it was the politicians, who mastered the dark arts of the 3R (religion, royalty, race).
We
are fed up with decades of brainwashing by the old guard, who tout the
oft-repeated moronic line that secularism means being anti-religion.
Surely, it is the government’s responsibility to unravel this backward
thinking and start a new narrative, about secularism, as part of its
educational reform.
Anwar said it was “unacceptable” for Malaysia
to completely dissociate the state from religion, and he added that
Malaysia is “not a theocratic state where you can impose Islamic laws on
everybody, including non-Muslims”.
Try telling that to mothers, Indira Gandhi
and Loh Siew Hong. Try explaining this to the many people who were
turned away from visiting government departments because their clothes
were not syariah compliant.
Ask the Kelantanese business owner who was fined for wearing shorts in her own shop.
Or
the workers of a Chinese restaurant located on the top floor of a hotel
in Petaling Jaya, who were forbidden from using the ‘halal-only’ lift to deliver produce to the restaurant’s kitchen. They were forced to lug the provisions up several flights of stairs.
Ask the American couple who years ago, faced a humiliating hotel-room encounter with the khalwat squad, when they docked in Langkawi to repair their yacht and had to await the arrival of spare parts from abroad.
The
phrase “secularism means being anti-religion” is frequently peddled by
the conservatives. Likewise, it is the same foolish line that they have
adopted when they claim that sex education lessons in our schools will encourage free sex amongst our children. How daft is that?
Instead
of proper education, we continue to ram more religion down the throats
of our teenagers. We hope that more doa will stop them from having sex
and the unintended consequence of baby dumping. When will the clerics
realise that extra-religious scriptures will not stem the fluctuations
of raging hormones in teenagers’ bodies?
Religious extremism affects everyone
Anwar, too, is guilty of labelling vocal Muslims as super-liberals,
just because they criticise the violence towards, and ill-treatment of,
the LGBT community, amongst other things. They’re not super-liberals.
They’re just concerned Malaysians, who happen to be Muslim.
Children are kidnapped by their converted fathers, despite the courts
awarding custody of the children to the non-Muslim mother. How many
unreported cases are there of families being torn apart by kidnapping in
the name of religion?
There are allegations of conversion simply
because of inheritance. It is alleged that non-Muslims cannot inherit
the property or money of a Muslim.
True Muslims disapprove of
these vile acts of one-upmanship, or conversion by numbers, but few dare
to speak out for fear of being branded anti-Muslim.
Whilst the
non-Malays are known victims of religious extremism, the Malay is as
much a victim of religious extremism and political Islam. Women are
probably the worst affected.
She is a victim of peer pressure,
something which probably escapes the non-Malay female employee. In the
civil service, the Malay woman who wants her career to progress must
conform to a specific dress code. Making a stand may jeopardise her
promotion prospects.
The school-going Malay child is also
picked-on. Parents risk further punishment for their children, for
daring to complain to the headmaster about conservative teachers. Why
demand vernacular schools be shut when this commendable act of racial
integration is discouraged?
The Malays are subject to the most
intense invasion of their privacy. No one condones extramarital affairs,
but people are adult enough to know their responsibilities. It is their
own business if they want sexual liaisons with others. Malay Muslims
bear the full brunt of the khalwat squads, with the moral police humiliating them in public, if they are caught in hotel rooms.
Today,
the conservative Muslims with their own interpretation of Islam have
become the new colonial masters, who divide and rule, whilst ignoring
the valuable lessons of the past.
Religious extremism affects
everyone, both Malays and non-Malays, and it is the responsibility of
the government to start the new secularism narrative, instead of making
more excuses.