clashes

clashes

Ade beberapa masalah timbul berkenaan aktiviti berbuka puasa yang sedang dalam perancangan MASA. The problem is, not all of us are Muslims and that is a big problem. My idea is not to use the word berbuka or fast breaking, it can be sensitive. Change it a little to, "A Potluck with A Countdown". Fair?? Good...

I believe certain things become sensitive only because we perceive things heavily and one-sidedly. Those things can be as small as a word or just a small difference in the intonation or in the movement of the body. Yes, sometimes we think shortly, sometimes, we just hate it and not sure about the reason. Sometimes, we are NOT open-minded.

I did express this idea to my fellow MASA members and hopefully you can understand what am I trying to do.


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Dear MASA members,

Thanks to Brendan for the reminder.
First of all, i want to wish Happy Deepavali to all of you. May god bless you...

As for Nov 1st activity, it was a very hard decision. I am totally agree with
every words by Brendan and feel grateful that he reminded us again. Farid also
expressed the same thing to me in the last semester.

So, this activity is not just a mere carelessness, brainless activity. I have
been thinking about this a very long time ago. I need to say this, we
Malaysians are always celebrating each other no matter what celebration or
which religion we come from. We greet each other with the greetings of the
day. We pray for each other's health and prosperity. We care for each other.
This is indeed the Malaysian Spirit.

I rather not to use the word iftar jam'i again as maybe some of you feel awkward
with this arabic word. Strange how people perceive different languages in
nowadays. French for example looks 'romantic'. Nevermind, that is not our
primary concern.

The breaking of the fast is indeed A CELEBRATION but smaller compared to the
Hari Raya Celebration which has the same purpose of celebrating the successful
mission of the day, fasting. The breaking of the fast is just a simple, regular
activity consists of eating and talking to each other, just like when we have a
potluck or so whatever. The difference is only the timing. Maybe some of you
have problem with this since you can't wait to eat when the foods are in front
of your eyes. That's all. The Muslims don't have any particular prayer or
activity during the fast-breaking activity. It IS just like a potluck.

As for the prayer. I am terribly sorry that I expressed the word sajadah in my
last email. I know that it is not appropriate and again, i am really2 sorry.
But no matter what activity we are having, the muslims still need to pray. This
can't be postponed or made earlier. I think this is a general information, some
sort of general knowledge which I assume that most or all of us know about it.
The Muslims need to pray even when we were travelling for Midwest back then,
and I believe Yuchin, as the driver, understand this and willing to tolerate
and give the muslims some time to pray. So for the activity, it is up to
individuals to pray at OTHER LOCATIONS (i agree with Brendan). After the
fast-breaking, i believe there is only an hour before the prayer time (evening)
ends at 6:40p.m. If this activity is to be happenned, i don't want to see a
large group of people leaving the hall to pray at the same time. What important
is, do your responsbility. I just want this activity to be a regular,
chit-chatting potluck.

I believe we have three options:

1. We can choose to end the activity earlier, maybe at 6:00p.m but that means we
are only together for 30 minutes (from 5:30p.m).

2. The other option is to have the dinner late at night, maybe after 9:00p.m.
on the same day. So, we don't have any fast-breaking activity, just a regular
potluck with only a purpose, to welcome the juniors.

3. The last one is not to have a potluck at all. Just a meeting during the
daylight since most of us can't eat.

Any concern about this important matter is good to be discussed together in a
promising, serene situation. We are open-minded and willing to discuss. I am
not going to take a majority in this case. One person feeling awkward is enough
to cancel an activity. Just tell us your problem and what concerns you the
most, just like what Brendan did. As for Nov 1st, IT IS NOT CONFIRMED YET. I
will need some advises or some reminders before we can proceed with the
plannings. Please.. please.. email me or contact me because i really need
helps. There are some concerns that are not arouse in this email so i hope
somebody can email me personally and we can discuss about it further.

I'm sorry if i made some rude statements. My intention is only for the goodness of
MASA, every each of the members.

Posted by Ahmad Fadzli on October 24, 2003 at 8:10:00 PM | Permalink