My Old Friend, a Voice of Islam
Out of curiosity, I tried to search for my own name on Google. Little did I know then that I would stumble upon a website that would make my day! It belonged to an old friend of mine whom I had lost touch with, ever since Standard 5. MENJ's Critical Thoughts is the website’s name, and it belongs to one of my best friends in primary school. It’s been 13 years since I last saw him… that’s a long, long time. What a pleasant surprise! Overwhelmed and excited, I did not hesitate at all to contact him immediately through e-mail. I couldn’t wait for him to reply. I want to meet him! I can’t wait to spend some time together with him to catch up.
There is an extra incentive for me as well. He calls himself an Islamic Internet activist. From what I can gather on his website, he’s been writing for newspaper columns on Islamic issues. He studies comparative religion, with a few of his books having been published. I couldn’t help but notice that he writes a lot about Christianity, Muslim apologetics, current issues involving Islam and much more on his website. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew more about Christianity than I do. But something is wonderfully different. I can’t explain it. I don’t know why. Behind all his words, anti-Zionist comments, critique and questioning of Christianity, I sense a beautiful and gracious personality. I just get this feeling that he’s different. My old friend Elfie, now a Muslim thinker and a voice of moderate Islam right here in Malaysia. I’m looking forward to having dialogues with him. I’m sure we will have so much to learn from each other. But for now, I just want to meet him and find out how he’s doing, and maybe relive our days together in Sri Inai Junior, our alma mater. They are days almost forgotten, lost in the myriad of events in my fading memory. I feel an excitement welling up inside of me, with a little tinge of nostalgia…
There is an extra incentive for me as well. He calls himself an Islamic Internet activist. From what I can gather on his website, he’s been writing for newspaper columns on Islamic issues. He studies comparative religion, with a few of his books having been published. I couldn’t help but notice that he writes a lot about Christianity, Muslim apologetics, current issues involving Islam and much more on his website. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew more about Christianity than I do. But something is wonderfully different. I can’t explain it. I don’t know why. Behind all his words, anti-Zionist comments, critique and questioning of Christianity, I sense a beautiful and gracious personality. I just get this feeling that he’s different. My old friend Elfie, now a Muslim thinker and a voice of moderate Islam right here in Malaysia. I’m looking forward to having dialogues with him. I’m sure we will have so much to learn from each other. But for now, I just want to meet him and find out how he’s doing, and maybe relive our days together in Sri Inai Junior, our alma mater. They are days almost forgotten, lost in the myriad of events in my fading memory. I feel an excitement welling up inside of me, with a little tinge of nostalgia…
posted by sojourner @ Tuesday, August 16, 2005
1 comments
1 Comments:
Oh so this guy is your friend. What a surprise...annoying surprise. I read his writtings some years back. He used to work for Islamic Information Services IIS. He also used to write a fundamentalist Islamic blog - pro-PAS anti-BN anti-secular basically everything you expect of a hardlined fundamentalist Muslim. But for reasons only he knows, he has since stopped the blog.
I find his writtings very annoying and criticises everyone's idea from a Islamic moral high ground. I wonder what's the point in he claiming that he studies comparative religion when all he is studying is just looking for ways to criticise others believe. In short - he is a prick! He claims that he doesn't celebrate New Year's day coz it's Christian and all...when New Year's day originated as a celebration of Roman pagan god Janus. See what I mean...everything West is Christian and is bad.
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