Hilarious yes, but watch the ending. I may be looking too much into this.
In other countries, certainly in the UK where I witnessed this first-hand, sometimes religion is preached through direct selling. There is nothing wrong with raising awareness of religion; dakwah is very much obligated. But forcing people to learn about it, while they are busy walking in the city trying to catch a train or finishing their shopping? There was one time when I was in a rush to get somewhere, and I passed by a man who handed me a booklet. I don't remember what it was about, and did not quite catch what the man was saying to me. All I wanted to do then was get to my destination. I said okay, okay, and walked on with the book, thinking he was giving it out for free. Then he stopped me again and said, "that is five pounds". What the?? Dude, I wasn't going to pay five pounds for some book I didn't even know was good or not. I didn't even know what it was about! I gave the book back to him and carried on walking.
I could go off a tangent here and talk about pushy sales tactics, but I won't. In this consumerist world we all know what that's like. There are also door-to-door 'salespeople', who come to our houses and hand out religious magazines, asking us, just like in the clip above, if we could 'spare them some time to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ'. The lengths these people go to to spread their religion. I am not only saying that about Christianity. This applies to other religions too, even Islam. I bet in other parts of the world, especially in multicultural cities like Birmingham, that people are eager to spread their religion, in the pursuit of unity. Or maybe to bring more people to their church/mosque. Only God knows.
This is interesting because just the other day I was watching RTB and felt a little unsatisfied with their representation of Islam. As a media graduate, albeit not a very good one, I sometimes look a little too much into certain consumer media. I like how RTB are putting quite a lot of emphasis on Islam through the shows and service announcements they broadcast. However, Islam has always seen as a spiritual thing, especially through Malay media. I know religion it is spiritual in a sense, but the media and parts of the society seem to almost always associate it with exorcism, the supernatural, death, tragedies, natural disasters etc. Then the current trend of Islamic themed romance movies such as Ayat-Ayat Cinta can affect our mindset. There is a possibility that failed hopeless romantics see it as a way to achieve their happily ever after, to achieve that temporary happy chemical feeling. Padahal Rasulullah SAW said that marriage is a form of ibadah, a form of duty towards Allah (I don't quite understand the meaning of that concept fully yet, other than marriage = having kids = increasing the population of the ummah. If anyone is kind enough to explain in the comments, please feel free to do so =D Advanced thanks). So if people start getting married for the wrong reasons, even though it is an arranged marriage, or no-dating pre-marriage, if the intention to love Allah isn't there, then balum tantu ibadah perkahwinan atu diterima olehNya.
Even the simple selawat and doa on RTB is read in a chilling deep voice, slow and booming. As if trying to spook us away. Maybe the readers intention is to pronounce the Arabic words clearly so viewers who wish to follow or note down these prayers may do so without rushing. But inda jua payah macam berijap kali ah.
Okay, I should digress. What does all of this have to do with the Road Runner clip above? It's the fact that people are put off with how religion is marketed. It may be that the way people 'sell' religion, be it Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. puts society off from wanting to affiliate themselves with religion. If a saleswoman comes up to you offering you a product you weren't planning on buying, don't know much about and are remotely interested in, would you stay and pay attention to what she has to say about the product? If she is trying to sell you a shampoo, for instance, that claims to tame frizzy hair. She says, "this is good for frizzy hair, you should try it, your hair looks quite unkempt". Would you be put off at 'quite unkempt'? There are better sales tactics to use on a customer right?
The same thing applies to 'marketing' religion. There needs to be a better way to approach society to raise their awareness of religion. The most common I see is using the scare tactic - the end of the world is coming. Or use the advantaged blessings, or fadhilat as an incentive of sorts- kalau dibaca kalimah ani 100 times akan dapat rezeki yang melimpah ruah etc. I feel that it's dishonest in a way. There is nothing wrong with zikir in remembrance of Allah, or to seek inner peace. But then what about the people who only recite the zikir in the hope that they may receive the promised blessings? It's like we have to have a reason to worship God, a reason that will benefit us in this life only. What about what benefits us in the afterlife?
Okay maybe I sound a little contradicting there, initially everyone has a reason to be closer to God, but then if you work on your iman, you will learn to love God eventually. Then you won't need a reason. Love Him for a reason, and the reason is love (yea, I totally took that line from that old Boyzone song).
So that is why I'm a little unsatisfied with this representation. Islam is supposed to be a peaceful religion that is friendly and accepting of anyone. But how they are representing this religion is as if they want to scare away people, to remind them of impending doom ahead if they continue to sin. An example I've experienced was while in Birmingham, walking in town on weekend. Christians were promoting their religion with handing out leaflets that say 'what if the world ends tomorrow?'. Some others were reading excerpts from the Bible out loudly. Kan menakutkan jua ganya tu. Udah takut barutah kan mencari Tuhan? Andangnya fitrah manusia cematu jua bah kan?
Those are just my two little cents. Please feel free to agree, disagree, comment or share your opinions.
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