Color Blindness

              Imagine a world where everything is in black and white, like in the old movies. It would be extremely hard to extinguish between players in FIFA, and my aesthetic collection of t-shirts would be useless without colours. I like to believe that the world would be  an extremely gloomy and boring place, where the rainbows in gay parades would be just black and white, and  it would be difficult to detect jaundice among newborn babies.

      I cannot imagine what would happen if our receptors could only see in shades of grey, but it seems that some people love to see the world in black and white. Not literally of course, because then people wouldn't have undergo the hassle of making colour televisions.  People like to differentiate themselves from others by  their beliefs and their identities. When everyone seeks to be different and outstanding from others, their lives become individualistic and competitive. Nobody wishes to be another brick in the wall, like the red bricks of those homogenous houses all around UK which looked all but the same.

         Acemoglu and Robinson, in their book Why Nations Fail, theorizes that the among the reason a country could grow wealthy is due to the individualistic nature of the society. The citizens who seek to be better people than their friends and neighbours would seek to improve their trade or innovate; create something new or simply better, and this led to the creation of steam engines and cotton spinners. While many would assert that those innovations are the product of material pursuit , I believe that individualism-the pursuit to be unique is one of the driving factors. Seeing how aggressive is the  competition to get into universities and the craze in research and development in this country further proves my thought.

           An agrarian country, where everyone either plant rice or rambutans would be an extremely dull place to live. There would be nothing else to talk about other than rice and rambutans, and there would be little improvement in life other than about those two plants. I believe that the world is a much more interesting place is you can meet people of different jobs and experiences daily, ranging from skydivers to cooks. The spectrum of colours in life is so vast and wide, yet why do some people choose to see the world in black and white?

               Islamists  in the middle east, during their early days only sees the world in black and white. They divided the world between muslims and the kafir west, and failed to appreciate other differences. As a result , it becomes difficult to accept anything that originates from the 'enemy', even if it is something good.  It was difficult for Islamists at first to accept democracy ,and they were skeptical of ideologies that came from the west.   Liberal ideas become something alien and labeled as  blasphemous and dangerous in Muslim countries, even though some of  these ideas are the same with the promises of religion.

                Some people in Pas views the society in black and white; those who support the hudud versus those who go against hudud.  When there are various reasons that cause people to oppose the hudud, the debate become closed when all who oppose hudud are regarded as blasphemous, enemies of the religion. Why would a muslim accept the views of the enemy of a religion? The failure to view the world in its full colours would kill discussions before they even started. There are people who opposed because they believe the hudud Pas is trying to bring does not follow the original text by  a hundred percent. There are others who believe that the social conditions should be conducive before syariah is implemented, and others who are concerned about Pas' lack of preparation for the technicalities of the laws. Those people who opposed the implementation are not concentrated wholly into a group who opposes hudud just for the sake of it. We must recognize all the different colours of opinions that exist, instead of labeling them all as blacks.

              I refuse to see the world in black and white. Tariq Ramadan mentions in What I Believe, that a human being is an agglomeration of numerous identities. He refuses to identify himself merely as a muslim, but also as a citizen of his country, a member of a race, a father, a son and a neighbour, all of which constitutes a human being. When we view ourselves and others simply as muslims and non-muslims, we somewhat fail to recognize that 'they' too are human beings which share the same intrinsic values of justice and kindness. By seeing the world in black and white, we put other differences as trivial and secondary, and I believe that that makes a bleak worldview.

Sahih International

O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah , witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do.

               When ISMA sees the world in black and white, they view muslims as brothers, and non-muslims as enemies. It is therefore natural to say hurtful things to someone you consider as enemies, to put extreme caution around them ,or make conspiracy theories about those evil beings . In the same time, it becomes natural to defend and justify whatever your brothers do, however corrupt and wrong it is, because that is what families are for, right?

                 The world is full of bright colours and weird things, so why would one see the world in black and white? Black and white movies are outdated and ancient, and now ,the upcoming 4K television can show you  millions of contrasting tones and shades.

*this article does not intend to insult color-blind people