Cahaya’s Rants

KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 (Bernama) — The key to ensure better relations between the Muslim world and western nations is by correcting the foreign media’s perception of Islam as a religion of terror synonymous with the Al-Qaeda movement, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said Monday.

“One of the stumbling blocks is the power of the media in the West that doesn’t seem to give a margin for us to come in into understanding Islam more objectively.

“The coverage they give is more about sensational news about terror, about captivity, about war and not on the other side of Islam which I have always been stressing — the life of Muslims.

“Therefore, the tenets of Islam urging us to be calm and be appreciative of beauty and the world have never been put forward in a manner that is coercive enough or effective enough. There lies the problem,” he said in his welcoming remarks at the “Third International Conference On the Muslim World and The West: Bridging the Gap”.

Rais stressed this point owing to rising Islamophobia among westerners.

Rais said even the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and other Islamic organisations and associations had never taken steps to correct this wrong point of view painted by the western media which equates Muslims and Islam with the Al-Qaeda.

“Actually, this is not the reality, it is a political movement by the Al-Qaeda. Islam is not Al-Qaeda. This notion has not been dispelled by any group, be it the OIC or regional Islamic organisations in the world.

“As such, every time when the Al-Qaeda issue crops up in Britain, it is equated with Islam. This is the wrong perception which we need to address.

“How do you do this?. I think it is only with the concerted efforts of our own Islamic media to project the truth. We have to have the forum, we have to have the media treatment and we have to have the political will among OIC members to project this sort of idea and image,” he said.

“Therefore, the tenets of Islam urging us to be calm and be appreciative of beauty and the world have never been put forward in a manner that is coercive enough or effective enough. There lies the problem.”

Huh.

Maybe Rais Yatim should begin by addressing Malaysia’s response to the movie, Fitna. Public protests and boycott, anyone?

Should the west be blamed for their perception of Islam when they see the following images? Should they be blamed for thinking that Islam’s adherents are easily provoked and prone to violence?

Rais Yatim, tell these people that “the tenets of Islam urging us to be calm and be appreciative of beauty”! If they listen to you, the West might be inclined to change their perception of Islam.