This article is in follow up to my novel article "SDP's John Tan plays the religion card"
The Singapore Democratic Party's Christmas greeting video has disturbed several online Muslims netizens, local and abroad.
In the video, John Tan, SDP's Assistant Secretary General (#2 man in SDP), repeatedly used the words "Jesus" and "Bible" in a span of 7 minutes. The Christian Messiah complex of the video has obviously offended Singaporeans of other religious groups.
John Tan mentioned that being "jolly" means different things to "different" people, and added that "being jolly is to continue to fulfill the mission Christ came to impart to us".
What does he mean by "different" people? Singaporeans might choose to believe in different religions, but how does that made us "different" people?
And do we Muslims get less "jolly" because we are not fulfilling "Christ" mission?
John Tan also claims that Muslims follow the Christian's path of non-violence. Citing the example of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who was suspected of attempting to assasinate the founder of Pakistan and who was viewed by Pakistanis as a traitor, John Tan gave a distorted image of reality.
By drawing religious lines, John Tan has lost my vote indefinitely, and many Muslims' votes for his irresponsible sensationalised remarks and illogical comments.
Thanks. Linked under, 'Discrimination & Identity'.
ReplyDeletesingazine.com
'Blogger Featured'. Thanks.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2bj4dTQ3A
ReplyDeletei must say that what posted on this blog is completely warped, for allegation are based on the screenshots which was taken out of context.
watch the original video and judge for yourself.
It's a Christmas message, of course he'll have to make some mention of Jesus and the bible. Does the sheer mention of these words alone offend the average reasonable Muslim? I think not.
ReplyDeleteI believe you might be the only one who drew such ridiculous interpretations from what was essentially an innocuous video. Please do not project your own warped individual perceptions on an entire community of rational individuals by claiming to speak up for all Muslim Singaporeans.
I would agree with all of Junyi's comments, except for the bit about 'an entire community of rational individuals'.
ReplyDeleteEverybody is rational given the naturalness and predominance of a particular logical system. Popular subscription to a particular logical system is never a good argument to attribute the self-validating accolade of 'being rational'. For instance, every man and woman would be considered 'rational' if they stuck to their 'rightful' positions in a patriarchal state.
Personally, i find local bloggers, generally, to be self-absorbed, fascist, and racist (as evidenced by their oversights) even though they like to think themselves 'rational' and democratic.
However, when we apply, for instance, the British logical system, or way of seeing things, they would have another name for the local blogging community, and i can assure you, it won't be flattering, albeit relatively rational.
a2ed.com