(2 unread)
7:58
Yet another discourse about this issue. I was watching Revealed on CNN this morning - I couldnât quite sleep for 2 days in a row now, first night was because I didnât sleep until 4, today I just woke up at 3ish and felt really awake and now the sun has risen, I donât really wanna go back to sleep - Anyway, this edition of revealed was about Amir Khan, the British Muslim boxer. It seems strange to me that CNN is really handpicking issues to highlight in their programmes. Last time they were reporting on the Muslim demographics in the British elections. Anyway, it got me thinking again on how to define my identity. Looking back at how far Iâve come from high school to university and now to working life, I see that Iâve progressed in the way I view the world and changed the way I relate to people. Certainly having the experience of Japan had made me more independent as an individual, and eventually coming face to face with my own faith, Iâve come to be a more happy person. Surely, I still get affected by people and such is the nature of men as we live in a social environment. However, I am slightly more clear as to what I want in life.
Being brought up in a âMuslimâ household with a devout Muslim grandmother, a reform Muslim father and a Muslim-convert mother in a non-Mulsim country(or city), I have never been able to fully experience and appreciate the other side of me. Prior coming to the UK, I just considered myself a typical-ish Hong Konger because that was all I knew. I left Hong Kong with the mindset that I would learn more about my religion, knowing how UK especially London is a hub for western Islamic learning. However, things did not really turn out to plan. 9/11 happened a couple of years become coming to London. My identity as a Muslim was placed into great strained because Muslim became synonymous with terrorist or extremist and I am by no-means an extremist. In fact, my up-bringing allowed me to grow up with a diverse range of people from a wide range of faith. One of my great friends in college who I sat together on the bus going to school, going to class and so forth was a Jew, and for me he just examplifies the stereotype that Jews are smart, because I tell you, he was bloody smart and a really cool guy. It was the very fact that my life-view was formed in such a diversified group (including a rhode scholar) that I come to appreciate the common threads which makes us all human.
I remember reading on Jacâs blog number 47 of 50 things to do in uni is to either find a religion or to loose it. For me, I think at least on many spiritual levels I have gone through cycles of loosing and gaining faith. I would certainly say Iâve actually lost it completely during those dark years except for maybe a couple of months in the 3rd year prior the summer holidays started when I started having philosophical/religious discourses regularly. In the recent years, being âmoreâ involved in the Muslim community, I find that I hold very different views to a lot of them. Its a constant struggle I face as an individual to find a comfortable space to suspend my world-view in without infringing upon others views and at the same time not be affected by their views. Having said that, its very difficult to do. I am quite easily influenced when I am convinced on a morality level that something is right. I find more and more that I use this blog as a means to put across my thoughts. Do I think being more religious has made me a better person? On some level yes, on some level no. The thing with religion is it could be quite indoctrinating. It doesnât matter which religion I suppose because I have seen similar traits in devout Christian friends. Just like Pope Urban II used the crusades for his own political ends, I think there are certain movements within the Islamic communities which is manipulating Muslims towards what the news would call âextremismâ. I think for many young Muslims, ideologies propagated by these movements would appeal to them because it gives them a sense of empowerment in the wider society. I think the fact that Muslims who are brought up in conservative families, and Muslims are by nature conservative people because of their inclination towards religious practices, feels disenchanted in the wider liberal British society. Speaking purely from personal experience having gone to very white clubs such as lifesaving and talking to fell Muslim colleagues and friends, there is something which brings you out of your comfort zone when you sit together with them in a pub sipping away on their beer. Its something I cannot explain further because its purely a feeling. Without feeling totally integrated into the wider British community, some would seek to alter it by condemning their practices. Certainly, some school of Islamic thoughts would empower individuals to become advocate for this change - I know this claim would cause a large outcry in the wider Muslim community as its a taboo subject.
I am not sure if its an Asian/British thing because I have no problem with my European friends. Thinking about it, I have very few white-British friends (who I would call genuine friends) after coming to the UK for 6 years. HuhâŚStrange. After reading Randyâs blog, I think I understand what he meant when talking about dutch people - not saying that dutch people are bad or anything - but its the fact that I strive in a minority community where I am expected to be different rather than expected to be the same.
The world is changing, things are pushed politically to the right. You can say that it doesnât concern you, but no matter what small things happen in the society, we are all affected. Looking at second world war when Hitler took over. Looking back, its easy to say what he did was wrong and evil. However, he did manage to mobilise the whole Germany, and pockets of Eruope to push his agenda across. Was it because all the Germans were evil? No. Hitler spoke some truths to peopleâs heart, and they believed it. It was a classic example of indoctrination. They say the best form of propaganda is the one where you donât know you are being manipulated. Incidentally, I watched a documentary about US armyâs involvement in hollywood blockbusters. If you were to see the heroic side to the American Army, you would be more likely to enscript. It was a way of glorifying war, and commiting your loyalty to the country. I could see that would be the case if I was an American who was taught to love America, and seeing these heroic service men and women out there fighting for freedom, I myself would enscript to the US Navy for the cause in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, how politicians use lies and speech to mobilise a nation is quite amazing.
Alright, enough blabbering for the day. Just in summary, human beings like to belong to a certain group. Individuals or elite in these groups have the ability to manipulate the actions of their members by empowering them. These actions performed by the members would be seen from the outside as being representative on the group. It makes me questionâŚhow free are we?