SOCIAL MEDIA

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Extremism

One question: What is extrimism?
Ok, perhaps more than 1 Q.

  • Who set the limit of being normal, that when you crossed that limit, u're extreme?
  • What are the limits?
  • Who are the extrimists?
At this point of my life, my mind cant stop asking these questions.
Why?
Because lately, i have heard too much of the word "extrimist", "fanatics", "fundamentalists" etc.
So, i began to wonder what made the world label them as such?

As a medical student, i am supposed to study almost the whole day (well, at least that's what my seniors told me) but i just cant. I cant keep reading the text book. I wanna play, i wanna surf the net, i wanna read ppl's blog, i wanna write my own blog, i wanna read other books, and i wanna do lots and lots of stuff so, i just dont study the whole day. 
Hence, if i were to hv a friend who slept only 3-4hrs a day, studying for almost the whole night, i'm bound to label this friend as "extrimist". I'd say 

"Fuyo.. U're vry xtreme! How could u sleep only 3-4 hrs?? I cant!"

But then, there is one thing i realised now that i need to bear in mind. This friend of mine, HAVE THE capability to sleep only 3-4 hrs a day. 
He@she is not my type, who gets headache whenever i do not sleep enough. So, to him@herself, he@she is not being extreme. Hr@she is surviving!

And, from (let's assume this is a girl) her point of view, i'd be the extreme one. Why? Cos she can only afford 3-4 hrs a night and study at other times while i sleep 8hrs a day. Twice the perios that she slept. Won't i be the extreme one? She might just say:

"What?? U slept 8 hours! That's extreme and ridiculous! How did u manage to finish the syllabus?"

The fact is, i didnt manage to finish the syllabus. =P I went for my Sejarah (History) SPM exam with not revising the last chapter. I skipped the whole chapter. It was something abt the policies of Malaysia after the independence. But i still managed to score A1. Alhamdulillah..

So, to me, she is the extremist. To her, i am the extrimist.

When i 1st got to know that my beloved prophet, Rasulullah pbuh stayed up almost the whole nigt praying to the Almight God, i was like, "What? That's extreme! I cant do it". But now i realised, the prophet was given the capability to do so by Allah. He has the patience, his level of iman is incomparable, and his love to Allah is beyond others. Thus, he was not acting extremely because his act was still under his capability. He didnt stand on one leg on a coconut tree praying, did he? Even if he did, that means he's capable of it, and so he's not extreme. Ok, perhaps that's not a beautiful example, but at least the concept is there. Correct me if i'm wrong.

So, who gave the world, the media especially to label some people in the world as extremist?
In Islam, there is the word "moderate".
As the hadith of Rasulullah SAW:-

Aishah narrated: The Prophet was asked, "What deeds are loved most by Allah?" 
He said, "The most regular, constant deeds, even though they may be few." 
He added, "Don't take upon yourselves, except the deeds which are within your ability"
(Al-Bukhari)

Well, clear?
Muslims are supposed to take only the deeds which are within our capability.
And so, eventhough Muslims are compulsory to pray 5x a day, and the way to do it is to stand, except when during ruku' or sujud. But if your leg is aching etc, u can do it sitting down, or lying on the bed, or in worse cases where the Muslim cant even move their limbs, paralysed the whole body, the Muslims can still pray - by using their eyes. Only the movement of eyelids are required. Isnt Islam beautiful?

So, in my opinion, the word extremist is not supposed to be popularised.
But the word "wrong-doers" should.
Those who do things extremely, like locking their women in the house because they do not want other men to look at their women, in the same time denying the women their rights, are not extreme, but they are wrong-doers. Islam do not allow women to be oppressed. Islam respects women like no other civilisation. Unless, the woman herself do not want to go out of the house because she doesnt want other man to treat her badly, that's totally ok with me.
Sometimes i feel like not going out of the car also when there are lots of men outside and i'll prefer if my father drives the car further from them before i come out.
That's normal...

So, am i being extreme?
Hurm...




8 comments :

  1. Interesting post.

    If only more people started thinking about these issues, we could have a far better and just world.

    This comment touches upon your post and the previous one you did on culture (I had problems trying to post there a couple of days ago).

    It is the West that has largely achieved the ability to set the encapsulating boundaries across the world of what is acceptable/normal and what is not, and therefore, it has a monopoly to decide what is an extremist, extremism, terrorist and terrorism.

    One tiny example of this (from a selection of many) was displayed on NTV7 yesterday the other day. The "news" featured the (non)story about JJ Leno. Soooooo many Malaysians know him yes? He touches each of our lives, and not just touches, but has a significant impact on Malaysians lives right?

    You know, JJ Leno - a TV talk show presenter who shock horror **stop-press** is stepping down as the host. Ooooh the ramifications – you can almost feel them (!). Clearly it is something that we must be informed about. What do you mean you've never heard of JJ Leno? You should be ashamed of your ignorance of the American 'culture' ignorance of which is obviously a sign of 'backwardness'

    Besides, nothing happened in India , nothing happened in China , Nigeria , Indonesia , Russia , Brzail , France , Mexico or Japan .

    And it is pure coincidence that the western internet "news" sites featured this non-story earlier. It is all by chance that much of NTV7's stuff is western.

    the mainstream media (MSM) aka the corporate mass media, ends up promoting 'Western values' (LOL) across the planet, including pushing into peoples heads perceptions of what is extremism.

    You are NOT extreme if you are:
    Godless (or so godless that you don't stifle their hegemony)
    A rampant consumer
    A pursuer of worldly pleasures.
    Someone who puts themselves first.

    You ARE extremist if you follow a code of life that they don't have control over or have difficulty in manipulating - such as you find in Islam and the uncorrupted elements of other faiths. In regards to Islam it guides us on economics, societal functions, interpersonal relations, loyalty, aspirations, and so on including environmentalism all of which create a just society where a rotten elite have no power over us. That is something they cannot tolerate.

    In the west now, prostitution is become normalised. The ruling New Labour Party accepts money from people who produce hard core pornography as just one example. The path is being laid for soft drug use. Infanticide (the killing of children) has been legal for some time via the abortion laws. Homosexuality, like Zionistic worship of Israyhell can no longer be challenged, that is unless you want to have a label stuck on you (a label made entirely by their own hands) identifying you as an extremist.

    The same thing is happening in the US as it is in the UK I read some reports a while back that a person who quotes their rights from the US constitution can be labelled an extremist or terrorist and also the very boring and incorrect charge of being ‘anti-Semitic’ (zzzzz)

    That being the case, I would be proud for them to call me an extremist.

    a few days ago there was reports of people in the US who supported the democratically elected Hamas party being jailed for something like 60 years (I can't remember the exact sentences).

    But when George jackass BuSh along with that that other piece of Scum Tony Blair, decide to exterminate hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's and tens of thousands of Afghani and Pakistani families that isn't extremism.

    Like I said, I would be proud for them to call me an extremist. and from what you said, in reply to your last sentence, I guess you are an extremist too!

    (sunyinye habis)

    ReplyDelete
  2. i amended the comment form..
    i hope it'll work now.
    thanks for the feedback..
    at least i'm at the good side of the extreme. ahaha..

    JJ Leno?
    Honestly, i dont know him..
    nvr heard of him..
    i dont watch non-fiction on tv much..
    a good thing i guess.
    if not i'll be stucking my eyeballs to AF, Tyra Banks, american's next top model etc...
    i watch only movies so, JJ Leno who?

    and oh yeah, i seen a new example here.
    Those who dont believe in GOd.
    They're not extreme?
    How then they develop from an ovum and a sperm to become a complete, functioning, systematic, developed, smart and beautiful beings now?
    Out of a sudden?

    (sudah x sunyi sangat)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was hoping you never heard of JJ Leno to prove my point, and I doubt many other Malaysians have heard of him either and even if they have... I don't think many would bat an eyelid at the 'news' he wa stepping down.

    NTV7 frequently put pathetic US and UK stories in their 'news'. Why? To make the USUK seem like us, so we end up agreeing with (or at least only oppose weakly) their horrendous foreign policy. If they were responsible/benevolent nations, then there wouldn't be much of a problem, but they aren't. They are brutal if you resist them.

    P.S.your blog has an error message coming up when trying to look at a subsection (either a specific post or get into the comments section). The problem occurs on two different computers. Did you add any 'sidebar tools' over the last couple of weeks?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yup,my mother nvr heard of him either. =P
    It's undeniable that some ppl still look upon the westerners as if they are everything.
    I personally have some relatives who think that way. They went to english school thus, they regard the european as "the power of the world".

    They told me, "why would the palestinians and jew fight for just a piece of land? why cant they act more maturely, sit together around a table and discuss the partition of the land".

    Well, i hv a feeling that the reason they said this was because US govt didnt lift a finger (not even a subatomic particle) to help the oppressed. if the US govt said something like "Israel shd not do that", then i think their opinion will be different.

    p/s:i tweaked this layout myself from an original minima theme. i'm not sure why the error msg popped out. i did not come across any. are u using internet explorer? i'm using mozilla and it works well. could that be the explanation?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Salam.
    I tried using IE in IMU computers and yes, some of the specific posts like "15th May 09 - 61 yrs passed" can be viewed. The error message was "operation aborted".

    Is that the error message u get?
    I edited that post and it worked well with IE. But in case there's any other posts showing the same error, perhaps u can try using mozilla or google crome. =) happy surfing!

    p/s: This comment cant be posted using IE.
    I'm not sure why...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Operation aborted: Yup! that's what comes up.

    I upgraded to IE8 yesterday and no prob since then. Not sure if the upgrade to IE8 cured it, or the tinkering you have done. Yours is the only place I've had the problem.

    I don't want to be nasty to your relatives, but next time you see them, tell one of them (as a secret) that for an experiment, you are going to walk out the house with something precious. (Or if they see you in their house, to take something of theirs that is precious e.g. a handbag). Tell the relative whose in on the experiment, not to say anything.

    As go to leave and put the precious thing in your car (if you get that far) watch them start to ask you why are you taking their things.

    Then remind them what they said about the Arabs and the Jews(Jewish occupiers) fighting over land.

    The precious object(land) is the theirs(the Palestinians). You(the occupying Jews) are thieving their precious object. Your relatives rightly protest as you are taking something that belongs to them(the Palestinians).

    Perhaps they will then understand further that because your relatives are not suffering the day to day pain and biting oppression, and there was gaps in their knowledge about the situation, their stance is wrong and should be re-examined.

    Not many people are able to take lessons like that and get angry at having their shortcomings exposed. Many ppl have inflated egos. Few people are willing to demonstrate such things. Perhaps then, instead of a physical demonstration, you could describe it like "What a guy off the street came into your house and stole something" How would you feel? Palestine wasn't a desert nobody lived in or nobody owned until the Jewish occupiers came in, nor is the land disputed… the land belongs to the Palestinians.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Grim Picture of Obama's Middle East (http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22777.htm)

    By Noam Chomsky

    "In the background is the Obama administration's goal, enunciated most clearly by Senator John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to forge an alliance of Israel and the 'moderate' Arab states against Iran. The term 'moderate' has nothing to do with the character of the state, but rather signals its willingness to conform to U.S. demands...."

    ReplyDelete