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?
In history, violence due to religious conflicts had never ceased. Many questioned whether there is any difference in fundamental teachings of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddishism Hinduism and others. I believe that every religion contain vary degree of element on war and peace, but constructive conversation across line of religion should gap the difference in views and also bring an end to violence. In some cases,people believe that they are ordained or anointed to carry out punishment on behalf of god ,they should not do so. Instead they should try to think rational and accept views from different angle.
ReplyDeleteClara Wong
The use of violence in my opinion would only escalate the severity of conflicts. The acts that are carried out by religious extremists in Malaysia should be condoned as these acts does nothing to aid the conflict but increase its severity.
ReplyDeleteI agree that religion has and will continue to be a sensitive topic among everyone. However i believe that through greater communication and deeper understanding of different religious groups, acts such as these may be avoided.
Fight for peace is like screwing for virginity.
ReplyDeleteWhat have the crusades brought us? Nothing, but bloodshed. Conflict cannot be resolved through violence, peace cannot be achieved through strength of arms.
This is not an issue of fighting for their religion's survival. This is an issue of men, with their hurt ego and threatened power, striking out for revenge to serve their own purpose.
I think using violence to solve religious conflicts is an oxymoron in itself, just the like what comic piece you had posted shows.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, it only shows the rest of the world how the religion obviously isn't preaching the right way of life, and making it known as a "bad" religion. Furthermore, using violence to solve conflicts is ironic since violence itself creates more conflicts.
I agree totally with Gracie. Violence can solve nothing... Instead it will bring more problems and more conflicts.
ReplyDeleteViolence usually never solves anything at all. You hit someone with a stick, they'll most likely hit you back. In the case of religion, they've been hitting each other with sticks for a long time. There is no easy way and no short term solution to solve this.
ReplyDeleteviolence should never be a way to solve problems. violence will only elevate the problem, problems should be solved in a calm way.
ReplyDeleteI believe that violence will only trigger more conflicts.Communication justifies its existence by making our world more harmonious and making our life more comfortable. Thus, even though religion is a sensitive issue as always, communication will eventually take place of violence one day=)
ReplyDelete