Articles, Opinions & Views: COMMENT - Zamri continues Anwar's victory over 'illegal' worship houses By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers On War, Politics and Burning Issues
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."
COMMENT - Zamri continues Anwar's victory over 'illegal' worship houses By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, February 09, 2026
Malaysiakini : Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s declaration of the great victory of
the construction of the Madani mosque on the site of the Dewi Sri
Pathrakaliamman Temple is exactly the kind of hot-button issue that
religious cretins use to inflame communal sentiment in this country.
Madani continuesto coddle hate-mongers
The
fact that controversial Muslim preacher Zamri Vinoth is Teflon when it
comes to his hate speech against Hindus in this country demonstrates two
things.
The first is that Madani continues to coddle hate-mongers
who use the religion of the state to shield them from the various laws
that non-Muslims are not exempt from, and the second is that DAP is
impotent when it comes to defending the rights of the non-Muslim
community, even though they are part of Madani.
I have no idea why some folks question why there has been no action taken against this hate-monger.
His
latest arrest for organising a rally against “illegal” houses of
worship and the prime minister’s eleventh-hour warning were merely a sandiwara
(theatre) to appease not only Zamri’s detractors but to make Madani
look good in the eyes of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the
international press.
I have no doubt that nothing will come of this arrest, just as nothing came of the charges against him before.
You
have to understand Zamri’s close connection with the religious
bureaucracy. The Selangor Islamic Religious Department had hooked up
with him in 2017 to give Islamic courses in Tamil to increase
productivity in proselytising in a multilingual milieu.
What this course was supposed to do was make it easier for (state-sanctioned) Muslim preachers attempting to convert Indians, using Tamil as an entry point into their lives.
Modi is the real target
While
Zamri may claim that his supposed rally against illegal houses of
worship and the arrival of Modi are merely coincidental, this, of
course, is farcical. The fact is that Modi is a hate figure for some
Muslims abroad and in India for various reasons.
Keep
in mind that Perlis mufti Asri Zainul Abidin’s “cow worshippers” poem
was aimed at Modi and the extradition of another controversial Muslim
preacher, Zakir Naik.
Zakir Naik
Meanwhile,
Zamri, a Zakir acolyte, once said he was willing to give up his
citizenship if Zakir were extradited to India. As reported in the Malay Mail, “If the government wants to send back Zakir or extradite him, I will not hesitate to hand over my IC.”
Indeed,
when Zamri was detained and released by the state for insulting Hindus,
Asri put forward that the former was only testifying when it came to
his personal experience with the Hindu faith.
What Zamri was doing
as a professional proselytiser was creating a narrative for Muslims to
use to convert Hindus in the course of his professional duties. This
idea of Muslim converts as the perfect vehicles to proselytise is
nothing new.
Muslim convert Ridhuan Tee Abdulah, for instance,
always pleaded “special knowledge” when it came to the Chinese
community. Hence, his “attacks” against the community had the appearance
of legitimacy to a certain section of the Muslim community.
Using converts to preach is propagated by proselytising faiths all over the world.
Ridhuan Tee Abdullah
And
while I think that Zakir is influential in the anti-Modi sentiment,
what really twisted the knickers of religious extremists was the sight
of Modi inaugurating the BAPS Hindu Mandir, the largest Hindu temple in the UAE.
Modi
hugging Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the UAE,
with honour guards in tow, inflamed the sensitivities and no doubt
caused much annoyance to the bigots and extremists worldwide.
Here
is a big, beautiful, sprawling Hindu temple and a prime minister who
was nurturing a reputation for defending the historical and cultural
contributions of Indians in the colonial and post-colonial world.
Celebrating that fact in the Middle East did not go down well with certain elements of the Muslim diaspora.
No such thing as ‘phobia’ here
So
it is not a coincidence that a local preacher who has a history of
using hate speech against the Hindu community and who remains immune to
the laws that govern such speech decided to hold a rally which
celebrates the destruction of “illegal houses of worship”.
The
point is to demonstrate that in this country, temples, especially older
pre-colonial temples, far from being celebrated as historical sites, are
destroyed to demonstrate the victory of the religion of the state.
Unfortunately,
for a simpleton like Zamri, what this does for Modi back in India is
demonstrate that Hindus need a strong man to battle the extremist
religious forces against the Hindu community in Asia.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
Last year, Anwar raged against Islamophobia
- “We must work together to counter hate and intolerance, fostering a
world where humanity thrives through mutual understanding and respect.”
Here
is the thing. A phobia is often described as an extreme, irrational
fear or aversion of something. This does not describe the sentiment that
cretins like Zamri and states that enable them in their agenda for
religious superiority all over the civilised world.
An accurate description would be an extremely rational loathing.
