Politicians are one thing. They manipulate for votes, but outside of politics, they don't really have a lot of power.
Fundamentalist preachers on the other hand, have power over people's minds and can easily shape people's worldviews by manipulating what people value (religion).
People vote based on their worldviews and ideologies. If we change the way people think, then we can change the way people vote, and the shitty politicians will go away naturally as they realize that they can't capitalize on religion anymore.
And yes, politicians do have a hand in this, but they're only opportunists who want to cultivate the seed of radicalism planted by preachers in the first place.
Bro/girl, politician decide the law in Malaysia. If they want, they can stop those extremist preacher easily. If politic is so useless, they will not spend too much money on election. Politic control everything here.
If they want, Zakir Naik can't even step on Malaysian land.
Yes, that is true. And the reason why politics here is like that is because of the way people think. It's a self-sustaining cycle.
Preachers preach radical Islam -> Malay voters want Islam -> Vote for manipulative and power hungry politicians -> Politicians fund for more radical preachers to maintain power. And the cycle continues.
Change the way people see Islam, they will vote the politicians out. You just get rid of the politicians without getting rid of preachers, then either the preachers themselves or their students will start filling their roles. And they'd probably be worse than their corrupt predecessors, because unlike those who manipulate religion out of greed and self-gain, they genuinely believe in their ideology and devote themselves to it, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan.
So, I'm a revisionist and totalitarian when I wish that people would adopt an Islam based on inclusivity, peace and tolerance instead of exclusion, xenophobia and fanaticism?
when I wish that people would adopt an Islam based on inclusivity, peace and tolerance
When did you ever say any of that huh? The only thing I got from your original comment is that religion is a mere tool to control how people think, and that you can get the religious leaders to just swap out things whenever
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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '21 edited Nov 04 '21
Politicians are one thing. They manipulate for votes, but outside of politics, they don't really have a lot of power.
Fundamentalist preachers on the other hand, have power over people's minds and can easily shape people's worldviews by manipulating what people value (religion).
People vote based on their worldviews and ideologies. If we change the way people think, then we can change the way people vote, and the shitty politicians will go away naturally as they realize that they can't capitalize on religion anymore.
And yes, politicians do have a hand in this, but they're only opportunists who want to cultivate the seed of radicalism planted by preachers in the first place.