I have been pondering on this topic for some time now. I
guess this is quite normal. I came from a country where the general premise is
that religion is a private matter – that it can be expressed in whichever way
wanted but in such a way as not to make others uncomfortable or bother people;
where conversations on religion are not really regarded as necessarily
sensitive. People say their opinion, share thoughts and move on. And I arrived
to a country where religion is EVERYWHERE.
It represents not only a matter of identifying yourself, and not just in relation to
your family and community, but with a whole ethnic group and almost with your
nationality. It is very much a public matter and the question “what is your
religion?” is asked easily and freely. The answer to that however might not be
received as easily, nor as freely. The concept of having “No religion” is
incomprehensible. People will just stare at you and then wish you “luck in the
future to find yourself”.
Even
administrative issues require filling in forms that want you to specify: Muslim,
Hindu, Buddhist, Christian. Atheist or any other possibility is out of the
question.
As I mentioned previously, I live in a Malay community, which
basically means very Muslim. From my 100 students, 1 is Indian and 1 is
Chinese. I live in the very Muslim neighbourhood and my days are now structured
around the call for prayer – which is a really nice and soothing sound that
gives quite some comfort in a way.
And it's not just MY day that is structured around religious
customs or practices. EVERYBODY's life is organised by the same practices.
Schools have their classes organised so that they allow for prayer time.
Restaurants are organised on the type of food they offer – halal, including
pork etc. I was sometimes surprised in the beginning when places that were
normally open 24/7, would close altogether because all staff must pray. Shops
and banks have the same schedule. Public holidays are abundant...every religion
must respect its own traditions, so depending on the state you live in, you
might be celebrating Chinese holidays, Muslim ones and Hindu ones in the same
month. (I really sometimes wonder how people actually get things done
here...every week there's another opportunity to take time off :)).
But obviously, as a foreigner living here, and probably
especially as an European, there are some things that are tough to get used to.
Or, better said, that ensure you will be surprised even when you think you've
gone through the worst part of the cultural shock. Below, I will give just two
examples that have contributed to my understanding of the issue :)
1. One of my students in the adult class asked me the other
day if I have a traditional Malay costume. As a matter of fact, I had just
received one from one of the girls that is leaving so my proud answer was “Yes,
I do!” (Anutza integrating :)). Side note: the traditional Malay wear is called
baju kurung – it is long and colourfull and it covers absolutely everything :)).
My students' then prompt answer was “Then you should wear it to class! With a
scarf too and then it would be complete!”. Now, when replying I obviously went
on the joke part of his comment. But I know he meant it just partly as a joke.
What amazed me most was that he would not find it offending if I , a
non-Muslim, would start to wear the symbol of his religion without actually
believing in it. My Dutch friend (who's also Muslim) told me she also finds
this fascinating in Malaysia – they are so used to their culture being the
dominant one that they cannot even look at things from the perspective of a
non-dominant culture.
2. My NGO is supposed to be non-religious. As a European,
hearing that, you would expect that the topic of religion would just not be
touched at all and left to the private lives of the individuals. And for the
most part, that is the case. Apart from the students who live in our boarding
school (as I mentioned in the beginning, the first month I lived in a training
center that was also a boarding school). Since they are there 24/7 and religion
is such an important part in their lives, the organisation has took it to
introducing singing of religious songs from all denominations. So you would
hear quite often songs to Indian Gods, Christian hymns or whatever else might
be present. The ones excluded are Muslim chants, as apparently it is forbidden
to non-Muslims to sing them. Now, this all sounds nice and dandy, but upon my
arrival, I was quite shocked at the amount of religion present in the
non-religious organisation. And even now, I am not fully sure how comfortable I
am with it. Especially since some of the members of the management of the
center are of bahai belief...something I will let you wikipedia for yourselves,
but that is basically a movement accepting all Gods and religions as valid and
pertinent for certain contexts. One might wonder: freedom of expressing all
beliefs or bahai followers passing on their principles to others?
I will stop here with
the examples as the post has already gotten very long. Not sure anybody will
actually have patience enough to read it but the topic is so ever present and so
dense, that thoughts keep popping up on it. Oh, and one final remark that
should be made is that, for a country where most of its inhabitants are extra
religious, the ones that are not have no problem making jokes and laughing at
it in ways that even Europeans would sometimes find a tad uncomfortable :)
That's what extremes get you I guess...