Friends, berikut KESAKSIAN teman baik saya, seorang wanita Malaysia di Kuala Lumpur, tentang peng-HARAM-an Yoga oleh ulama Malaysia, enjoy !
+ Dear Leo, Just a quick note. I haven't been dropping in on Milis SI for quite a while, but since I miss reading your quips and discourse, I did yesterday and got onto some postings by some of SI veterans about the latest gaffe on Yoga over here. This is just one of the many stupidities inflicted upon us by half-baked religious bigots. As for me and the likes of me, we don't waste a breath discussing it, we just roll our eyes to heaven as we know that we live in different worlds and there is no point foaming at the mouth over it. But on the one hand, I actually do feel so pained by it all and at an earlier point in my life I just might cry my heart out in frustration. The Yoga ban is nothing but ignorance, also small mindedness, and jealousies that while all Muslim women go about with their heads covered (never mind if the covering is so bejewelled and the face so dolled up), there are Malay women who don't (how dare they?) and in fact go prancing about doing Yoga and stuff and enjoying it and earning good money from teaching it (there are many exclusive Yoga centres operated by 'modern' Malay women here who have nothing to do with Hindu philosophy). In the end it is the same small mindedness of puny human beings no doubt they seem to come from one particular religion (I suspect the latest carnage in Mumbai has to do with them too, as in so many other places in the world). But Leo, what I am dismayed about, which prompts me to write this time, is the spirit and tone of what I read in SI. I hope I am wrong, but I sense again this unspoken disdain about things Malaysian.... Does spirituality have national borders and boundaries? Can we not be supportive of each other if we know any better? Can we go a bit beyond merely passing remarks and instead be educational and uplifting? God knows we need it at this time in the world's cycle. Daisy + KOMENTAR SAYA: Thanks Daisy, It's nice to hear from you. Actually Indonesians began to be "outraged" en masse exactly one day after the announcement by Malay ulemmas or whomever it was who pronounced the haram stuff. In my opinion, liberal and open-minded Indonesians have this kind of "perception" about Malaysia where the ulemmas are so unreasonable. So, when things turned rather badly as when the Indonesian Parliament passed the "Pornography Law", then one of the reasons cited for condemning the law was: "Even Malaysia does NOT have a law like the Pornography Law". Now, that kind of reasoning only justifiable when we accept the underlying assumption MANY Indonesians hold about Malaysia as the place where "funny" things happen. It follows that If Malaysia does NOT have a Pornography Law, then Indonesia is NOT justified to have one. Reason: It is NOT funny enough, or something like that. Sure, spirituality has NO border, it spans from the North Pole to the South, and has NO color too... No color No time span Nothing in between Only You up there and Me down here who are ALL OF US There is nothing haram or halal whatsoever, only CHOICES. We choose whatever we wish to do with our own lives. The stupid fatwa is only a memoriam, something to be recorded that ONCE we had such, just that. All the Best, Leo Milis Spiritual Indonesia <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spiritual-indonesia>. Get your new Email address! Grab the Email name you've always wanted before someone else does! http://mail.promotions.yahoo.com/newdomains/aa/
