Located in the Sentul district in Kuala Lumpur, a Sikh temple was pelted by stones in the evening periods of 14 January. Coincidentally, this was not the first case of deliberate desecration of such cultural constructs. In the past week, there have been numerous arson attacks on churches in Malaysia. The police are currently finding leads on the culprits behind the firebombings. Apparently, the attacks occured due to the official court decision that use of the word 'Allah' is not limited to Islam. The Malaysian Catholic weekly newspaper, also known as the Herald was also attacked for using the word 'Allah' as a reference to God in its malay-language section.
These acts show that religion is an important part of our society. Even though communication has constantly evolved over the years, religion remains a difficult subject to bring up in a conversation. The consequences of doing so could be dire depending on the person, however, even certain situations such as this one require it. Ironically, the consequences of avoiding rational negotiation in this situation would cause it to rapidly escalate out of control.
This is not the first occurence of a religious conflict in history, but i wager that it will not be the last, at least not until we are able to negotiate rationally. The use of violence can intimidate others in some circumstances, but definitely not when religion is concerned. Beliefs are one of the most important things to an individual, as such, only the things that we value as highly will sway our beliefs and violence is not one of them.
What are your views on using violence to resolve religious conflicts?
