When I was in primary school, I went to a school called SRK St. Joseph in Johor Bahru. Yes folks! It was a Christian missionary school complete with a church attached! I used to wander the church grounds with all my friends and sometimes, actually often times, we even had the opportunity to enter the hall itself.
I still went to my Pendidikan Islam class with my other fellow Muslim classmates and I knew, even at that young age, that I am a Muslim.
Going to church never confused me. I am a mixed breed child and come from a mixed breed family. So I have many relatives who come from many different race and also religious beliefs. I have been to many a church weddings, like the one between my Uncle Tuck Meng and his wife Aunty Renuka, which was held at that big church in Kelana Jaya by the LDP highway.
I still continue to believe that I am a Muslim and still attend mosque to do my prayers and even read the Quran to understand it better. Going to church never confused me. I have been to church for work even.
Early last year, I produced a documentary with Karim Raslan and we shot a wedding in a church in Keningau, Sabah. The entire production crew, consisting of two cameramen, a host, an assistant producer and producer, were Muslim. Going to church never confused us.
And I can't even count the number of churches I've visited during all my holidays to Europe. That continent is like church central! So maybe we should just ignore that one good doctor who says that Malay Muslims should not visit churches as it means sacrificing the dignity of our religion race and country.
I say it again, I am a mixed breed child and come from a mixed breed family. So I have many relatives who come from many different race and also religious beliefs. And that means, whenever there are large family gatherings, the Muslims in the family will have the opportunity to eat together with the non-Muslims in the family.
And when an occasion like this happens, it is also very likely that the non-Muslims are eating pork while the Muslims wouldn't be eating pork. As far as I know, none of the Muslims in my family have ever been confused of their Muslim beliefs after any of these gatherings where they were surrounded by pork eaters.
Definitely not me.
In fact, there are Hindus in my family too and many of us would be eating beef in full view of them. None of them have ever been confused of their Hindu beliefs. There are also vegetarians in my family too (but they are a minority, and are usually seasonal vegetarians). And come gatherings, everyone will be enjoying meat in front of them.
And guess what? They have never decided to not be vegetarians or get confused of their beliefs that made them decide to be vegetarians anyway.
So maybe we should just ignore that one good doctor who says that Malay Muslims should actually not even look at pork just to be very careful to protect their beliefs.
Oh wait! I've got it! The solution to all this probelem is actually pretty simple. Maybe we should ignore that one good doctor... period!
Zan Azlee
Thu Feb 27 2014
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