Can we dispel our suspicion of each other for a better society?

 

 I come from a multireligious, multiracial and multicultural family. We celebrate Hari Raya, Chinese New Year and Deepavali. As stereotypical as it may seem, food is one of the things that bring us all together. How typically Malaysian, right?

This harmony may seem very superficial, but it requires deep respect, acceptance and understanding between my family members in order to get along and live as one big happy family.

Every time a big festival rolls up in the year, the visiting of homes starts to happen, and that leads to the eating of food.

When it is Chinese New Year, we will all be eating Chinese food. The reunion dinner table will be filled with chai choy, steamed fish, abalone and mushroom broccoli, etc.

When it is Hari Raya, the morning after prayers is when we fill our stomachs with laksa Johor, lontong and beef rendang. When Deepavali comes around, the assortment of curries fills our mouths.

Everyone will be cooking everything and there has never been any question whether the food we serve among ourselves is halal or not, if there is beef or not, or if it is vegetarian-friendly and so on.

The Muslims in our family are confident enough to know that we will never be served non-halal food. The Hindus will know there will never be beef. The vegetarians (whether Buddhist, Taoist or Hindu) would never have to worry if there will be any food options on the table for them to enjoy.

In my family, at least in the three recent generations, we have seen interracial and interreligious marriages happening. Over these many generations, and if I do say so myself, our family has perfected the art of living harmoniously together and the way we eat together is the perfect example of that.

Food safety

I can let you in on the secret to our success: We have perfect faith and trust that each one of us will always respect the beliefs and practices of each other.

It doesn’t matter who is preparing the food or which house it was prepared in, we just know that consideration for all has been given.

We could be in my grand aunt's house with an altar in the living room, or in my uncle’s house where a big gold-plated frame of the Al Fatihah is displayed, we know that the food is safe for all of us to eat.

Sure, there might be some pork dishes, but we let each other know which is which. There might definitely be some beef rendang or satay in the mix and we will let each other know too.

If I do say so myself, maybe Malaysia could learn from how my family has been doing things. Why is there such a need to be so suspicious of people and always think of the worst of them at every chance we get? Is it such a problem if a non-Muslim prepares halal halal food?

As far as I know, it wouldn’t be an issue if the ingredients are halal and the preparation process is clean too. As far as I know, there is no requirement saying that only Muslims can prepare halal food. So why the big fuss?

Discrimination

The recent debacle where a man working in a restaurant wearing a cross on his necklace while preparing food was fired because the public expressed suspicion on social media that whether the food was halal or not is ridiculous.

Most restaurants would indicate whether the food that they serve is halal or not. So it is up to the customers to trust that or not. If you don’t, then don’t eat there. If you do, then eat there. But just because an employee at a restaurant isn’t Muslim doesn’t mean it isn’t halal.

Many restaurants might even be officially halal-certified. This means that they actually go adhere to the requirements and procedures by the authorities to obtain the halal certification. This is one more step to guarantee to the public that their food is halal.

So, for Muslims who need that added convincing, feel free to go for these certified halal restaurants. But keep in mind, even halal-certified restaurants do not require the staff to be Muslims and the owners of these restaurants may not be Muslims either.

The restaurant employee who was wearing a cross while working did not violate any law. But if he was fired from his job just because he was wearing a cross, it was a violation of his rights.

Nobody should be fired from their jobs just because of their religion. That would be a clear infringement of their human rights. In fact, Malaysia has laws to prevent things like this from happening because it is considered discrimination.

The restaurant should not have crumbled under the pressure of social media.

If the public was offended over something like this, then it says a lot about our society. We are not tolerant, accepting or understanding of different cultures and religions. But more obviously, we are not understanding our own culture and religion. It is embarrassing and sad to think that my fellow Malay Muslims in Malaysia do not understand enough that they can find something like this offensive and get all angry and worked up over it.

I think we as Malaysians need to work very hard to overcome our suspicions and doubts about each other. If you really think about it, what do any racial or religious group have anything to benefit from constantly doubting and questioning each other? Nothing, really.

But, there is much more benefit if we just trust each other and always think positive and good thoughts. It can benefit us not just in terms of our general well-being, but also economically, politically and basically, just developing as a nation.

It boils down to throwing away the hate, anger and negativity that we have. Love and trust one another and keep the faith that everyone doesn’t have ill intentions towards anyone else.

We can really live in peaceful harmony if we do that. There really isn’t much we need to do to achieve this. It’s really a mental perception issue.

We just need to change the way we perceive things. I guess that’s easier said than done, but I do not feel it is impossible. - Mkini

---

ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.