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The internet is now having a collective religious nervous breakdown since video clips of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) participating in a Hindu religious ritual with his family went viral.
And apparently, this is where some Malaysian Muslims have decided to draw the line.
Some are asking whether SRK is still a Muslim. Some are praying for his hidayah. Some are demanding that he be boycotted.
And, because Malaysians apparently cannot have a scandal without somebody demanding an honorary title be removed, there are even calls to strip him of his Datukship.
For those who aren't fans, SRK is a Muslim by birth and is married to a Hindu-born and Hindu-practising wife, Gauri Khan. As he has explained in various interviews, their children have been raised with both religions under one roof.
“One of us”
I have to admit, I find the outrage rather fascinating, because we have all seen SRK perform Hindu rituals for decades. So have Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Irrfan Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
These are Muslim-born Bollywood actors who have played Hindu characters, attended Hindu ceremonies and performed religious rituals as part of films for years.
Yes, the Malays have mumbled while watching the films, but generally, we understood something rather revolutionary - it was a film.
Apparently, that concept becomes much harder to understand when the man is standing with his own family, performing those rituals in real life.
Now, I remember when Shah Rukh Khan performed Umrah in Mecca in 2022, after wrapping up the Saudi Arabian schedule for Dunki. Photos and videos of him in ihram went viral.
And there was enormous excitement among some Malay fans.
“Look! SRK! In Mecca!”
There was a sense of pride, almost as if the Bollywood superstar had finally come home to the religion they wanted him to represent.
And then, just days later, SRK was spotted at the Vaishno Devi Hindu temple in Jammu.
The same man who was in ihram days earlier was now worshipping fire with a red mark on his forehead.
And suddenly, the religiously complicated SRK was back.
It's really amusing, when SRK does something that confirms the Muslim identity we want him to have, suddenly he is one of us. When he does something that doesn't fit our expectations, suddenly we need to investigate his faith.
Why? Because apparently, Shah Rukh Khan's religious identity requires Malaysian public approval.
The thing is, if you believe a particular ritual is forbidden in Islam, you are perfectly entitled to believe that.
You can even choose not to participate in it.
What I find rather extraordinary is the assumption that this gives you jurisdiction over another adult's relationship with God.
Shah Rukh Khan is not your son. He is not your husband. He is not your uncle or your grandfather.
And, most importantly, he did not ask you to supervise his soul.
The Malaysian obsession
There is something particularly Malaysian about this obsession with what other people are doing.
We seem to have developed a national hobby out of looking over the fence.
Why isn't she wearing a tudung?
Why is that couple holding hands?
Who is he bringing home?
What religion is that family practising?
Why is that temple being built?
Why is she ordering food during the fasting month?
Why, why, why?
Perhaps we should try something radical. Perhaps we should all try minding our own bloody business.
It is an astonishingly liberating concept. Really.
Take Malaysian rockstar Datuk Awie, for example. He has previously spoken about being uncomfortable with certain scenes in Bollywood films and said he did not want his children watching them because he worried they might be confused by a Muslim actor performing something such as worshipping fire.
Fair enough.
He is the father. He decides what his children watch. That's called parenting.
You don't have to agree with his choice. You don't even have to like it. But at least he is making a decision about his own family.
And perhaps that is where the distinction gets lost.
If you don't want your children watching a Muslim actor perform a Hindu ritual, don't let them watch it.
If you don't want your children watching a Hindu actor perform a Muslim prayer, don't let them watch it.
Nobody is stopping you.
But somehow, we have gone from “I don't want my children watching this” to “Nobody should be allowed to do this.”
That's a very different sentence.
Selective outrage
Malaysians have spent decades watching Malay actors do things on screen that are hardly a masterclass in Islamic conduct.
Men and women who are not mahram touching each other? Check.
Romantic scenes? Check.
Sleeping together? Check.
Sexual relationships? Check.
Characters drinking alcohol? Check.
Characters committing adultery? Check.
Characters behaving in all sorts of ways that would hardly earn them a certificate of Islamic piety? Absolutely.
And yet nobody storms the gates of the film industry demanding that every Malay actor involved be stripped of every award and honorary title they possess.
Because, apparently, we can accept that that is acting. That is fiction. That is a character.
Ah.
So when a Muslim actor performs a non-Islamic act for a film, we understand the concept of acting.
And here is where the selective outrage becomes rather entertaining.
We have had Malay actors caught up in all sorts of controversies - khalwat, drug offences, infidelity, homewrecking, child abandonment. You name it, we've had it.
And yet many of them are welcomed back into the industry.
People still attend their concerts. People still buy their records. People still watch their films and television dramas.
People are remarkably good at separating the person from the offence, the performer from the behaviour, the art from the artist.
But when a Muslim man somewhere in India participates in a Hindu family tradition in real life, suddenly we forget that adults have complicated identities, families have different traditions and people don't necessarily practise religion according to the neat little template we have created for them.
Practising religion when it suits us
We say Allah knows what is in someone's heart. We say everyone has their own journey. We say don't judge people. We say only God can judge.
Until somebody else's behaviour makes us uncomfortable.
Then suddenly, we become deputy Gods. We become religious compliance officers.
We become the Malaysian Department of Shah Rukh Khan's Personal Faith.
Perhaps we should stop turning religion into a weapon for policing everyone else. We don't have to launch an international investigation into whether SRK is sufficiently Muslim for our liking.
Leave the man alone. Let him figure out his own relationship with God.
We spend so much time watching everybody else's religious behaviour that we sometimes forget to watch our own.
We want SRK to behave like the Muslim we think he should be. We want other people to respect our religion exactly as we understand it.
But perhaps the grown-up version of religious freedom is accepting that other people may not practise their faith exactly the way you do.
You want people to respect Islam? Respect other people's right to practise their religion.
You want people to stop judging Muslims? Stop judging everyone else.
You want people to leave your faith alone? Leave theirs alone.
It really isn't complicated.
You keep your religion.
I'll keep mine.
And SRK can keep his.
Apna mazhab apne paas rakho, aur doosron ke mazhab ko chhod do, samjhe?
Fa Abdul (fa.abdul.penang@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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