A Confused Young Malaysian

So as I was reading this really long letter by Confused Malaysian Muslim, makes me ponder even further when trying to understand the Muslim people in my country, me being a non-Muslim.

I'm very confuse why some Muslim can drink beer like drink water, some so faithful to Islam they really search for surau in everywhere they go and dutifully follow the Quran.

How can I understand why a Malay guy friend can say "girls who wear tudung are hypocrites" and as for he himself, he doesnt go to the mosque on Fridays (that's a bad enough offence I believe) yet doesn't dine in Chinese coffeeshop (I thought he's not afraid of going to hell yet why is he afraid to enter Chinese makanshop? Hmm... :{ )

The Malay friend said, what's the point of wearing Tudong if the girl does not behave and is in 'disguise' to pretend to be a goodie good girl when in fact is on the look out to find pakwa? Or sell herself cheap to be hooked up just about any other guy?

I certainly agree on the fact that I could respect a Malay girl who's well behaved even without her tudong, rather than a tudong wearing girl with attitude problems.

Just take my experience lining up infront of gate for a concert, then suddenly a group of young Malay girls all wearing tudong came from no where, pretending & cutting queue. Took another 'modern' looking Malay couple to scold them.

I just observe all the people around me and got more confused.

I was quite disappointed with the fact that during CNY (Chinese New year) when we invited Muslim guests to our house, they cannot use our plate & spoon!

I knew about respecting other ppl's religion by not serving pork and all, but I didn't know that when they come to our house, very mafan, my parents have to specially tapau food from the nearby mamak stall and buy paper plates.

Like dohhh... what's the point of inviting my friends over and you can't even try my mom's delicious home cooked food?

But what really amazed me was this year, I befriended a Malay girl from work and I invited her for CNY open house. Guess what??! (she's from Penang btw, they say Penang people are more chin chai).

She sat down on the same table with us and ate the food my mom cook using our plates!!! Of course it was only vegetarian meals - 1st day of CNY usually people go for vegetarian for a day lah.

My parents was glad to know I could prove them wrong - that not all Malays are THAT fussy like their generation of colleagues.

I'll also not forget how confused I was one day, when I volunteered to make salad for office jamuan.

Goodness gracious.... my only humble intention was to try make simple halal dish for everyone to eat (I work in a government department, btw), then this akah asked me to just buy the fruits, she said she'll bring knives along to help me cut. In my mind I thought how thoughtful to help me out...

little did I know... yeahhh you guess it. How silly of me - next time don't volunteer to make anything for those typical tudong wearing akah... even fruit salad for that matter.

Did you know WHY?! For non-muslim, if you didn't know yet, according to the Quran, anything that comes in contact with pork, you cannot use it UNLESS you wash it with clay water 1 time, clear water 6 times. Then as confused as ever, I asked "you dont need to use soap?"... "oh no need".

Looking at this whole country in general now, I couldn't be more confused! How there could be soooo religious Muslims who would vote for PAS (yeah yeah you know how government staff are inclined towards supporting the religious mullah lah)... but they will NEVER support DAP because they think its a Chinese party that is against Islam (which shows how lack of knowledge they are).

Thus making this lot of Muslim very difficult to get along with in a plural society, as much as I try to understand them.

I'm just confused, why during my parent's schooling days, according to dad, there was no such nonsense as Malay dun enter Chinese makan shop. Kids just lepak together, go the same school, play in the same field, even the English language was used for mixing the people together.

Even back in the old days, there were lesser female wearing tudong in universities compared to these days.

As much as I try to mix with the Malays in Uni, it was not easy when everyone stick to their own race. It was also so hard for the Malays to speak English, what more with the fact that half of my Chinese friends speak terrible English - how to blend in together? Can try, but fighting this battle alone is one struggling battle!

Anyway, although I claim that I'm more confused being a minority Malaysian, compared to a being Malaysian Muslim - who cares right?

In this land where majority rules, there I can be rocket scientist makes no difference. Everybody is confused in their own realms and only kiddin' no one but ourselves.

Makes no difference who am I.