New laws to prevent religious strife

To claim that religion is for peace is looking more and more silly by the day. Many wars and strife around the world are caused by religion, religious beliefs, religious intolerance often claimed as misinterpretation of the religious doctrines and text. In short, religion is spelt trouble. To some religions, peace means the annihilation of other religions with only one religion left.
 
The sensitivity and highly prone to war and destruction of religion must be tackled carefully and forcefully. Singapore is a secular state and religion must always be kept at a level not to upset social and national security and stability. Singapore cannot be ruled by religion. How to when there are so many religions in this little island and each has its core values and doctrines that are in conflict with other religions and if not restrained, could lead to open hostility?
 
The Govt is going to act, to nip in the bud, threats to religious harmony under a religious harmony law. This fake and unnatural state of affair called religious harmony can only exist in Singapore if the govt is strong and not be influenced by any particular religion or be hijacked by religious extremists. Religious harmony is so artificial when one is to really look at what religion is all about vis a vis other religions. Religious intolerance and exclusivity to other religions is the core of trouble in this world. Let’s not deceive ourselves to think otherwise. Without a strong govt to keep the lid tightly over religion, conflict could flare up at any moment anywhere. There would be some cuckoo religious leaders that would come along to whip up religious intolerance and could claim correctness by quoting their religious books.
 
Having this understanding of how sensitive religion is, it is fair and necessary to stop people from being too free and generous in their comments and views about religion. This comment from Hsien Loong is fair. ‘But we do not allow unfettered and rambunctious discussion on religion, or even worse provocative or blasphemous cartoons, performances and videos, nor are we likely to do so for a very long time to come…We have no illusions about the depth of the religious fault lines in our society, and the harm that will befall us if we neglect to manage them, he said,….’ This point is particularly important in this blog especially to Matilah. When the law comes into effect, I would have no choice but to delete his strong views that he thought are funny about religions. Not many are mature enough to tahan his caricatures of religions and religious icons.
 
But while respecting and being aware of religious sensitivity are important, the govt must not allow religious sensitivity as an excuse to set the agenda and norms of civility and correctness in society. Religion and claims of religious sensitivity must not be allowed to determine what is right or acceptable like ethnic sensitivity. This reminds me of the swine woman that threatened and bullied a young innocent boy for saying ‘beef curry’ and attacked him and threatened the boy that he could be killed in some silly country. I am still waiting to see if the govt would take this silly woman to task for spreading fear in Singapore with her extremist and bigot views of what is or is not acceptable and permissible in Singapore. The best part is that she could not see her folly and bragged about it in facebook to tell the world that she did the right thing to attack the innocent young boy. Poor boy must be terrified by his encounter with this swine woman.
 
To guard against religious extremism and religion to set the agenda and way of life for everyone, this is what Hsien Loong said, ‘We must also have religious and govt leaders who are broad minded and enlightened, who understand the context in which we operate, and who set an example for others to spread the message of tolerance and understanding.’ This is a tough call and demanded the religious leaders to fake their stand and often have to say or do things contrary to their religious beliefs and doctrines. Tough, but they have to oblige in the name of religious harmony.
 
Religion and religious differences are things that are best be left alone, not spoken. Their truths may not be your truths. What an irony when truths are questionable and often seen as untruths by the non believers. How can one truth be so wrong and another truth be so right? Is not truth be truth?
 
Lets pretend that there is religious harmony and keep it that way. As long as the lid is kept in place, we can live with this religious harmony and it is good for everyone, especially the non religious, not to be bullied and threatened by religious bigots and extremists and be allowed to live their own lives of their own choosing.