Ignorance is bliss, or so they say

I found it hilarious that Malaysian PM, Najib Razak, offered to send Islamic scholars to the US to help educate the American people about the faith. Here's a quote from him: "The most important step is to provide [the Americans] the basic knowledge about Islam." As an American-educated person I thought the idea is really inane and a mere publicity stunt. My years of toiling in the American higher education system informs me that it should be the other way instead. The US has never lacked any Islamic scholars. Islamic Studies programs and courses are the main staple in most universities all over the country. Even a lot of high schools now offer some form of Islamic Studies course as an elective. Quite a few famous Islamic intellectuals have made the US their home like Syed Hosein Nasr at George Washington University in Washington DC; John Esposito, John Voll and Yvonne Haddad at Georgetown University in Washington DC; Ingrid Mattson at the Hartford Seminary, Connecticut; Juan Cole and Mark Tessler at University of Michigan, and others. Georgetown University establishes the world renowned Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding to help foster interfaith understanding and tolerance - as its name explicitly states. Basically there seems to be no short supply of resources to educate the American public about Islam. So why the gimmick to send Malaysian Islamic scholars to the US? How are these "jaguh kampung" more knowledgeable than the many world-famous Islamic scholars who currently reside in the US?

I also found it hilarious how Malaysian government always adopt the schizophrenic approach to burnish its "Islamic image" - no offense to people who are actually suffering from the mental disorder. Internationally, Malaysian government always claim that it's part of the Muslim ummah, the Islamic brotherhood and solidarity of all Muslim countries. It claims that Islam is a universal faith that transcends race and ethnicity. But domestically, it does a complete about-face. Religion (read: Islam) is now equated to race/ethnicity (read: Malay). Islam is no longer universal; it becomes tribalistic. Malay equals Islam, and vice versa. It's even entombed in the Federal Constitution (Article 160). What's the reason for this obvious psychological disorder? It's all about politics and the protection of status quo (interests of the elites). It has zip to do with religion.

It's true that the American public in general is in serious need of education about Islam (and other religions for that matter). A recent test done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has shown that majority of Americans, especially those who claim to be believers, don't have much clue about religions, even their own. As I've mentioned before, the reason for this knowledge deficiency is not because of lack of resources. It's simply that the voice of sanity and rationality is being drowned out by the shit-stirring provocateurs on mainstream media, who care more about TV and radio ratings than fostering a healthy discourse on the topic. The proposal to build the Islamic Center near Ground Zero in NYC is a perfect example. Unless the American mainstream media finally acknowledges its responsibility to provide a well-balanced and level-headed report to the public, it doesn't matter how many Islamic scholars are there in the US. People will keep getting their "education" from such media hucksters like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Fox News, etc.

p/s: I took the test and scored 100 percent. Seriously, it's a piece of cake!