Sunday night. After spending a long day touring around
Auckland I decided to take a break from my schedule for some private time.
It was that very night that I watched two major-hit films in
a row.
Muallaf- a Malaysian produced movie and Inglourious
Basterds- a Hollywood blockbuster.
To be honest I’m so proud of Muallaf, and I salute the late
director Yasmin Ahmad and her crew for such wonderfully unique and seemingly
justified representation of human spiritual struggle and the concept of
humanity per se.
It was later that I had a moment of reflection, of how
religion binds people together, or keeps check on human nature. Islam, like
many other holy religions, teaches mainly about the concept of love, respect, devotion
and spiritual reliance.
For once I felt the urge to be a devout Muslim, to
assimilate the teachings of Muhammad the messenger, but at the same time, have
the utmost respect of people of other religions.
But later my moment of contemplation was baffled by the
sadist, inhumane and utterly ill representation of World War II scenarios in
the second movie.
I felt so violated, I was at the brink of tears, to see how
easily people be reduced to the state of monsters just to prove a point, to
satiate hatred of an idealism. To be honest, I still cannot believe the fact of
how Hitler went to such lengths to satisfy his anti-semitic beliefs.
A quote from Lieutenant Aldo,
“Nazis aint got no humanity. Theyre the foot soldiers of
jew-hating, mass-murdering maniacs and they need to be destroyed”.
Sure, these two movies make a bad combo for a marathon.
I am so glad that I and we now live in a world without
world-war, at least temporarily.
I am so glad that I was born as Malaysian, as we learn the
true meaning of humanity, love, sacrifice and tolerance without so much
bloodshed.
