Being a Muslim..sort of
(First of all, for the Malaysian bloggers who have been invading this blog with the Chinese vs Malay debate, please move your debate somewhere else. Thanks.)
We all know that religion is a great deal in this country. I remember when I mentioned casually in this blog that I was agnostic, I received quite a reaction, which was pretty surprising although kind of expected.
I never imagined, however, that my religion (or lack thereof) would be an issue too during my recent trip. I mean, I did expect questions about Islam, the teachings, relationship with terrorism (yaawn) and so on. But I didn't realize that people (and more surprisingly, journalists) would be that ignorant about Islam and Muslims, which made me understand a bit of why Muslims are so angry with, specifically, "Western" people.
"Are you Muslim?" asked each of every single fellow to me, the Indonesian. I said, jokingly, "Yeah, sort of." And then they would frown, "What do you mean?". And so I said that I was raised Muslim, but I'm not religious, even kind of agnostic. Strangely, that answer seemed like a foreign concept for some of them, but since it was only the first days of the trip, they didn't ask more questions.
If we ate out, my colleagues kindly enough picked restaurants that also serve other meals aside of porks. I told them I ate pork too, so never mind, and they would look at me like I was some kind of alien. "How come? You're Muslim!". Err.. didn't I tell you earlier that I was agnostic?
Later on, questions rose one by one, and finally, on a bus ride in Bangkok, I gave up and said to two colleagues who frequently asked me about Islam and Muslimness, "OK, what do you wanna know? Shoot." They jumped from their seats and move near mine. They fired questions of how come I became agnostic, how come I wasn't religious, did I agree with polygamy or not, and so on and so forth which was a bit irritating but I tried to explain to them. Boy did I wish the Pakistani fellow was there to help me.
At the end, I said to my colleagues, "I guess you guys were raised Christian, right? Do you still go to church? Why is it so hard for you to understand that Muslims, or people who are raised Muslims can be moderate or even unreligious too?"
I really blame Bush administration and media for spreading the Islamophobia. For putting the image of one single type of Muslim on people's minds all over the world.
Like I said, I now understand why "real" Muslims and hardliners are so upset with Western people. Although I still despise fundamentalists and hardliners and their violence way, but rather than not wanting to have something to do with them, I now think that there's something missing in a way we're dealing with them. I don't know how yet, but there should be another way to reach them.
In Bangkok, we met politician Surin Pitsuwan, a very sharp and charismatic man, a former foreign affairs minister who happens to be Muslim. With the unrest of Muslim in the Southern Thailand, Pitsuwan said that the rest of Thai people often wondered why the Muslims in Thai don't understand that secularism is the best way for the state.
"It's not them who didn't understand the rest of us, it's us who don't understand or refuse to understand them. Maybe before globalization, it's not our problem. But now, their problems are our problems too, so we have to think a way to understand and reach them," he said.
Another note, although I now have detached myself from the religion that I was so strictly brought up with, somehow I still feel connection to it. And whether I like it or not, apparently, it's still part of my identity, like what my friend said: religion that we grew up with is like our birth mother. You can be away from her, or be close to her, but she's always be part of you.
We all know that religion is a great deal in this country. I remember when I mentioned casually in this blog that I was agnostic, I received quite a reaction, which was pretty surprising although kind of expected.
I never imagined, however, that my religion (or lack thereof) would be an issue too during my recent trip. I mean, I did expect questions about Islam, the teachings, relationship with terrorism (yaawn) and so on. But I didn't realize that people (and more surprisingly, journalists) would be that ignorant about Islam and Muslims, which made me understand a bit of why Muslims are so angry with, specifically, "Western" people.
"Are you Muslim?" asked each of every single fellow to me, the Indonesian. I said, jokingly, "Yeah, sort of." And then they would frown, "What do you mean?". And so I said that I was raised Muslim, but I'm not religious, even kind of agnostic. Strangely, that answer seemed like a foreign concept for some of them, but since it was only the first days of the trip, they didn't ask more questions.
If we ate out, my colleagues kindly enough picked restaurants that also serve other meals aside of porks. I told them I ate pork too, so never mind, and they would look at me like I was some kind of alien. "How come? You're Muslim!". Err.. didn't I tell you earlier that I was agnostic?
Later on, questions rose one by one, and finally, on a bus ride in Bangkok, I gave up and said to two colleagues who frequently asked me about Islam and Muslimness, "OK, what do you wanna know? Shoot." They jumped from their seats and move near mine. They fired questions of how come I became agnostic, how come I wasn't religious, did I agree with polygamy or not, and so on and so forth which was a bit irritating but I tried to explain to them. Boy did I wish the Pakistani fellow was there to help me.
At the end, I said to my colleagues, "I guess you guys were raised Christian, right? Do you still go to church? Why is it so hard for you to understand that Muslims, or people who are raised Muslims can be moderate or even unreligious too?"
I really blame Bush administration and media for spreading the Islamophobia. For putting the image of one single type of Muslim on people's minds all over the world.
Like I said, I now understand why "real" Muslims and hardliners are so upset with Western people. Although I still despise fundamentalists and hardliners and their violence way, but rather than not wanting to have something to do with them, I now think that there's something missing in a way we're dealing with them. I don't know how yet, but there should be another way to reach them.
In Bangkok, we met politician Surin Pitsuwan, a very sharp and charismatic man, a former foreign affairs minister who happens to be Muslim. With the unrest of Muslim in the Southern Thailand, Pitsuwan said that the rest of Thai people often wondered why the Muslims in Thai don't understand that secularism is the best way for the state.
"It's not them who didn't understand the rest of us, it's us who don't understand or refuse to understand them. Maybe before globalization, it's not our problem. But now, their problems are our problems too, so we have to think a way to understand and reach them," he said.
Another note, although I now have detached myself from the religion that I was so strictly brought up with, somehow I still feel connection to it. And whether I like it or not, apparently, it's still part of my identity, like what my friend said: religion that we grew up with is like our birth mother. You can be away from her, or be close to her, but she's always be part of you.
3. Kei Kudo, who helps organize NEETs and help them to get job and provide training, despised the notion that NEETs are spoiled rich kids. Many of NEETs, he said, come from middle class (there’s no lower class in Japan). Many NEETs are so stressed out of not having job that they develop skin disorder and mental disorder. Some got really sick because of work pressure (yang emang gila di sono) and long work hours, and leave jobs eventually.