the first verse in the Quran is about
reading. Since reading entails a discourse
and a dialogue, it is strange to note the
absence of both in our community.
authorities. We still remember the polemics between Kaum Muda and Kaum
Tua in British Malaya in which power and
authority were used to curtail any dialogue on Islam by the Kaum Muda that
were deemed subversive.
Tun Mahathir’s central attack on
this social psychosis is the lack of knowledge among Muslims, and he aptly referred to the first Quranic verse that
was revealed to the Prophet (S.A.W.)
which commanded Muslims to read. We
often hear this exhortation from the
speakers in our ceramah circuit - that
the first verse in the Quran is about
reading. Since reading entails a discourse and a dialogue, it is strange to
note the absence of both in our community. Take, for example, the case of
“Kalimah Allah”. In the High Court, despite the plaintiff tendering evidence
as to why Christians could use the
word “Allah”, some of which referred
to the existence of old Malay writings
by Munsyi Abdullah, there was no response from the authorities to address
these evidence at all. Another instance
to this strange lack of di