Friday, September 9, 2011

Thanks Ishmael Yusef for Your Observation; No More Negative Postings on Religion!

Zachimalawi will, with immediate effect, stop posting religious material that encourages disunity and discord, but will, instead, concentrate on building Malawi and the world at large.

Your plea that materials from Bill Warner be not posted here has also been taken well-care of. Expect no more of these materials. That is Zachimalawi's word.

Zachimalawi concurs with you that much of the suggestions proffered by religious websites are one-sided and stereotypical, and border on ill-will and bad intent. We believe, here at Zachimalawi, that you have a point.

It would, however, be interesting to have good people like you- valued followers of Zachimalawi- write back on issues you feel are half-baked and one-sided. But, as you have rightly said, religion is a contentious issue, and people of all faiths should be left to go about their business.

You are right.

That is why Zachimalawi will never feature religious material that denegrades other religions; religious material that only destroys the unity that we enjoy, as world citizens.

Zachimalawi does not take forgranted the fact that you had to sacrifice your time, there in Tunisia, and write to us. We also don't take it forgranted that you follow Zachimalawi, and are not happy with the religious material from Bill Warner, material that puts Islam in negative light. We agree.

Just to put you in the picture on Zachimalawi's perception of Islam. The best friend of Mr. Zachimalawi himself is a muslim; he is the one who helped Mr. Zachimalawi move out of the house he was staying in, in 2008, in one of Malawi's townships. The township is called Chilomoni.

This good friend- who always refers to Mr. Zachimalawi as 'brother'; for a good reason, though. Over the years, we have become more than brothers- took Mr. Zachimalawi to his home in Ndirande Township (also in Blantyre), where Mr. Zachimalawi stayed for a whole year.

That is family, for sure. It is from there, after one fruitful year of brotherhood, that Mr. Zachimalawi found his own home. This friend, surely, helped Mr. Zachimalawi find his foot in life; he gave Mr. Zachimalawi a head-start in life.

Today, Mr. Zachimalawi goes to his home daily. And the first question he asks is: "Have you eaten today? Do you have food at home? Relish? Flour?". Mr Zachimalawi is not ashamed to say that this is the best man he (Mr Zachimalawi) has ever seen in life.

He he a good Muslim, too. Every day, he finds time to go to the mosque and pray to his Beloved Allah. Every evening, aroung 07:40pm, he tells Mr. Zachimalawi to escort him to the mosque.

This man has been so good to me; he has been so caring. This man has been helpful to me in so many ways than one. In fact, he has just dropped me in Blantyre Central Business District one hour ago. THis afternoon, this devout muslim will wait for me again, to take me to his home.

Therer, at his home,we will have cocoa. Then,later this evening, he will go to the mosque.

Of course, after asking me if all is well at home!

During the Islamic month of fasting, which ended some 10 days ago, this good muslim used to pick me and take Mr. Zachimalawi to one of Blantyre's famous muslim hotel owners' home in Sunnyside, where, every day at 05:00pm, we were ferrying a big rice pot for the good muslims of Ndirande Mosque.

Everytime we were late- say, by 10 minutes- he was not happy. He was not happy because he said he could lose blessings because some of the people who would eat the rice might have nothing at home.

He is such a good man.

All this, Ishmael, goes to show that people who 'talk' ill of other faiths and religions do not know what they are talking about. This includes the materials you have asked Zachimalawi never to post again.

Take Zachimalawi's word that this will never happen again. Such materials will never be posted again. When Zachimalawi told the friend being referred to here, he supported the idea. In fact, he said the decision not to post such material should have been taken a long time ago.

But, please, receive Zachimalawi's apology for the pain caused to you through such negative postings on other, including your beloved, religion (s).

You see, you may have noted that, for a while, such postings were not made on Zachimalawi for the same reason that one follower wrote Zachimalawi, and complained that such materials were not good as they were promoting disunity.

Zachimalawi took heed of the concern and stopped publishing. However, barely six days later, 11 followers and Zachimalawi readers wrote back, saying they were missing such materials.

Followers, as they say, always win, and the staff was back again.

No more.

Even if others write, asking Zachimalawi to continue posting, Zachimalawi will not relent. That is why we have taken all this space just to emphasise that you, Ishmael, are right.

But Zachimalawi will not be able to take such negative material out of the archives and delete them. They will serve as our lessons.

Sorry for the pain you might have suffered, Ishmael. Please understand that some of the postings on religious- which, I now agree with you, put other religions in bad light- found their way into Zachimalawi because Zachimalawi serves a broad audience. Some members of this audience never tire in writing Zachimalawi, throwing praises at the Blog for its diversity of postings.

That will remain our goal, for sure, but we will avoid any material that cast members of any religion into negative light.

Thanks for writing and, please, write again when you notice that something is going wrong.

Apologies, too, to all those who were affected by religious material that put their faiths into question. It was not intended.
Kind Regards,



Zachimalawi

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