The Power of a Single Voice

This deserves its own blog page, and I just wish that I had far more people that would read it.
I have rushed it, so I apologise, but I wanted to capture the incident while still fresh in my mind.

Every once in a while, someone does something that blows you away – their intelligence, their sense, and their courage – and they restore your faith in the human race.

What I am about to recant may seem a small issue, small potatoes, yet it relates to one of the largest issues in this world today.

First – the background:

A local professor runs a breast cancer clinic, but in recent years the clinic has been having its government support drastically cut. She therefore set up a private charity to create more funding.
Though she is a Malay Muslim, the charity board consists of all three Malaysian ethnicities – Malay, Chinese and Indian.
Decades of hard work and fighting for support has worn her down, so she is retiring from both the clinic and the charity.
Therefore a new chairwoman was selected for the charity, and she is another Malay Muslim. Her taking up the post happened towards the end of a new fundraising scheme. Part of her ‘campaign’ to become chairwoman consisted of listing her husband and friends and the influence they could bring to the charity.

The Event:
Every year, the board organises a fundraising charity dinner. This year they had several potential venues to choose from, but one stood out – it could provide more tables and had a substantially lower cost per head. For the charity, this meant it could raise far more funds.
The event consists of both food and entertainment.

The Trouble:
The new chairwoman objected to the venue – or rather, she demanded that they choose another.
“The restaurant does not have ‘halal’ certification. We must not ask Muslims to go there. My husband can arrange for us to use a government hall.”
Such a change of venue would radically reduce the number of tables available – hence reduce the funding they could gain.
‘Halal’ is an important term in Islam, though the emphasis has slowly become restricted to the way food animals are slaughtered. I both understand and respect this requirement of Muslim life.
The charity board were bowing down to this woman’s demands, not wanting to offend Muslims.

The Stand:
Then just one woman, a Malay Muslim, stood up and gave one of the most important messages this world needs to hear.
“You are using this aspect of our religion as a bludgeon, part of a power play. You are exercising bigotry and intolerance. This event is not about religion and it is not about eating. If we, as Muslims, decide that none of the food is suitable, we can choose to not eat! We can still attend to support the charity and to support our fellow charity members of all ethnicities. Your objection is a non-issue.”

The board saw the sense in what she was saying, and the original venue was re-instated.

My Point:
My point in this blog is not about one religion, and it is not a condemnation of Islam. It is certainly not about suppressing any religious beliefs that an INDIVIDUAL chooses for THEMSELVES.

The extremists in most religions are also the most vociferous. They make claims of representing everyone of their faith.
This claim is a LIE.
They forget the tenets of their religion and they preach intolerance and bigotry. They use their voice to gain power, and they browbeat the rank and file through fear – usually quoting out of context and dubiously interpreted extracts from their holy books.

It brought tears to my eyes when one of the rank and file stood up with the courage to oppose this.

That this example occurred in Malaysia is amazing.
To put this in perspective:
Once famous for its religious tolerance and blended ethnicities, the government that has been in power for over fifty years is now in trouble. They are hence drawing more and more on religion to stay in power. 60% of the population are Muslim, and if these people can be cajoled by unfair ‘gifts’ and bullied by religious intolerance, the government hopes to win the next election.
The other two Malaysian ethnicities are being relegated to second class status, and the extremist right wing Islamic religious leaders are being given more and more powerful voice.

If more Muslim Malays had the courage of this woman, the trend could be reversed.


I stated that this blog was not about any single religion, though I have used this example.
The same issues have dogged this world for thousands of years, and are blatantly occurring in both the US and the UK right now – extremism always expands in times of financial and economical crisis.

This woman demonstrated how a single voice CAN fight back.