An answer to a Malaysian blogger

I found this post on a blog by Mr. Saidul A Shaari, from Malaysia.

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The Baha’i Faith organization is spreading their teachings to Malaysia?
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Let’s not waste too much on this.

To all Malaysian Malay (Melayu) Muslims, I have a quickie warning to be given to every one of you today. It is very important so please bear with me on this.

It has come to my attention that the Baha’i Faith organization is now attempting to spread their teachings here in Malaysia. I stumbled upon their ambition by accident earlier today. I realized it when I saw a Google-based online advertisement promoting their teachings in the internet.

It seems that the Baha’i Faith organization has all ready secured a very strong footing in Sarawak. As matter of fact, they have opened a few Baha’i Faith centers over there. They even have an office, suspiciously named as Sarawak National Spiritual Assembly Office located in Kuching.

Please forward this finding to our Religious Departments as soon as possible. I will of course do the same but let us all do that in numbers. Only then they would look into this with some fair commitment.

My fears are with our naïve and some time stupid Malaysian Malay Muslim teenagers. I sincerely hope that we are not too late in relaying this warning to our Malaysian Malay community.
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OK! Here we go again!

Now we have a Malaysian blog warning about the spread of the Bahá'í Faith in Malaysia. A post with a few paragraphs, reflecting a mix of ignorance and fear. In Europe, if anyone publishes a similar “warning” concerning the growth of Islam, and the establishment of a Mosque in some city, such “warning” would be described as “Islamophobia”. But let me try to answer this post.

The Bahá'í Faith is trying to spread it’s teachings in Malaysia. So what? It is doing that in every country and territory. And when they have some success (meaning that a few hundred people accept this religion) then Bahá'í institutions are established. These institutions are named “Spiritual Assemblies”, and are supposed to work on national and local level.

Note that some times Bahá'í national institutions are established in some territories that are not and independent country. For instance, Alaska has a Baha’i National Spiritual Assembly. The same thing happens in Canary Islands (part of Spain); and I hope one day it happens in Azores and Madeira Islands (both part of Portugal). This is not a support of separatism (Bahá'ís stay out of politics!); it is just the way Bahá'ís organize their communities.

I meet a few Malasyian in my life. I don’t know what their religion was; I just remember they were decent and intelligent people. So it is hard for me to imagine that “stupid Malaysian Malay Muslim teenagers” exists. Youth are just youth; they are the same all over the world. We are all human beings, correct?

But let us suppose that in fact people who accept the Bahá'í Faith are stupid, and that the teachings of this religion are a threat. Consider, for instance, the Bahá'í teaching of equality of opportunities for man and woman. Is this a threat? People who accept it are stupid? And the teaching concerning universal and obligatory education; is this another threat that naïve people a ready to accept? May be that the teaching on elimination of all forms of prejudice is just another Bahá'í teaching that only idiots accept.

My dear Saidul A Shaari! No one should be forced to accept a religion. I know many people who got in touch with the Bahá'í Faith, investigated their teachings and decided not to accept it as their religion. But such a decision was the result of a free investigation of truth; it was not the fruit of ignorance or prejudice. So please, try to find out what the Baha’i Faith is about, in order to have a more solid ground for your comments.