When I was writing my book Cycling Fun & Easy, I cycled all over Peninsular Malaysia. I had a most enjoyable time seeing my own country on a bicycle. I saw many things and places ordinary people don’t see.
At that time I was also doing social activism work and one thing that worried many Malaysians was the worsening religious extremism. It seems as though the people were no more tolerant of the many religious beliefs of others and were only championing their own religious beliefs and rights. So I decided to cycle into every mosque and surau I saw along the way.
I wanted to see which Muslim would shout at me, “OI! ENGKAU BUKAN ISLAM! LU CINA! LU TAK BOLEH MASUK SINI!”*
The mosque and surau are holy buildings where Muslims go to pray. A Muslim has to wash himself and be clean before entering the prayer hall. They also have to dress appropriately – I am told, no torn jeans are allowed inside. So, I felt sure that someone would shout at me since I only wore shorts to cycle and I would be all sweaty from the cycling. On top of that, I was a ‘kafir’ – an unbeliever.
At the time I was writing my cycling book, around 2015:
- Hate preacher Zakir Naik was being supported and protected by our country – he was allowed to reside in Malaysia in 2016 after India ordered his arrest,
- Barisan Nasional narrowly lost the general elections and Utusan Malaysia had this provocative headline: “Apa lagi Cina mau?”** – giving the impression that the Malay government had given many concessions to the Chinese but they were still ungrateful,
- Muslim protestors dragged a decapitated head of a cow and stomped on it to anger Hindus who view the cow as sacred,
- A church was barred from using the name ‘Allah’ when referring to their God – some extremists attacked several churches while mosques were vandalised.
- There was an increase in clamping down on Shia Muslims
And here I am going to cycle into every mosque and surau I saw along the way. At every city I visited, I cycled into its ‘masjid besar’. These mosques were very beautiful. They were many years old and there were always people there to perform their religious duties. I felt sure, someone would shout at me or at least tell me politely to leave. No one did!
I cycled into mosques in kampongs. Surely the kampong Muslims are fanatics and extremists, right? I remember this one kampong mosque: there were some Muslims there and they asked where I was going. I told them and they wished me well. Then, without saying more, they left to go home!
Most people at the mosque were astonished that I was cycling around our beautiful country and wanted to know more. Of course, some were surprised to see a non-Muslim in the mosque but not one person barred me from being there. Sometimes, I asked to use the toilet and other times, I asked permission to rest. If no one looked like they were interested in me, I simply plonked myself down at a cool spot to rest. Or, wait for someone to shoo me away. No one ever did shoo me away.
At one surau, I was invited to help myself to coffee in the pantry which I declined. At one mosque, I had an interesting conversation about mosque architecture with an old Muslim man.
When I finished writing my cycling book, I came to the conclusion that almost every Malaysian Muslim isn’t an extremist as the internet would have you believe. It is despicable that politicians stoke the fires of religiion to scare voters when in truth, Malaysian Muslims are naturally peaceful. Worse, it does not take much to incite a crowd of Malaysians. The next time, we hear politicians stoking the flames of hate, we should tell him to shut up.
Translation: * “Oi! You are not a Muslim! You’re Chinese! You can’t enter here!”
** “What more do the Chinese want?”
Pepper's World. Notes to myself. 