Asking a non-Malay whether we are Islamophobic is a little like asking a Japanese person whether they like nasi lemak.
We might love nasi lemak, and we might feel that people are missing out by not knowing the joy of having a good plate of nasi lemak. We might even make it our mission in life to tell everybody about the joy that is nasi lemak because we sincerely want everyone to experience the same joy that we have..
But the reality is that many Japanese people simply are not that into spicy food.
I will be honest with you. Around 10 or 20 percent of my Muslim friends—not all, but a noticeable minority—seem to believe that if I only understood Islam properly, I would inevitably fall in love with it.
I cannot count the number of times I have been asked, sometimes quite directly, why I do not simply embrace Islam.
Most of the people who ask me this, I am certain, mean it in the best possible way.
They like me. They wish me well. They want me to be happy and they genuinely want me to find what they believe is the truth. In their minds, asking me to embrace Islam is no different from a Malaysian encouraging a Japanese friend to try nasi lemak. They sincerely believe they are sharing something wonderful.
To spark my interest, they often bring up facts about Islam, even when the conversation does not naturally call for it.
Because of this, I know quite a bit about Islam. Off the top of my head, I know that Prophet Muhammad was born around 570 CE, that the cave he received his revelation at is called Hira, that his first wife's name is khadijah and his last wife's name is Aisyah, that the first four caliphs were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, about the tragedy of Karbala, the Five Pillars of Islam, the Six Articles of Faith, and much.much more.
Many Muslims may not realise this, but many non-Muslims often know far more about Islam than Muslims know about our own religions and belief systems. This is because Islam is all around us - it is on the TV, in the politics, in the schoolbooks, in the conversation with our friends...everywhere. A Muslim in our country can go through years without coming accross anything Hindu or Buddhist, but it is impossible for a non-Muslim in our country to go through a week without encountering something about Islam. This is because Muslims are generally much more inclined to share their faith with us than we are to share ours with them.
As sincere and well-intentioned as this sharing usually is, I hope Muslims can also understand how many non-Muslims experience it.
Imagine a Malaysian enthusiastically serving nasi lemak to a Japanese guest.
The guest understands that it is offered with kindness. He appreciates the generosity. He may even enjoy a few spoonfuls.
But after a while, he has had enough.
If you continue insisting that he keeps eating because you are convinced he will eventually love it, the sambal may begin to burn his tongue and upset his stomach.
At that point, he may reject the nasi lemak—not because he hates it, but because he has reached his limit.
Unfortunately, the host may misunderstand this rejection. To the host, it can feel like the guest is deprecating, or maybe even insulting, something that they deeply cherished.
That is when the relationship begins to sour.
To many non-Muslims, PAS comes across like that enthusiastic host— who are strongly convinced that once we experience Islam, we will inevitably love it.
It comes out too strong, and when we decline its overtures with strength, it is apt to see us as Islamophobic.
Our discomfort with PAS often has less to do with Islam itself than with what we perceive as its insistence that we experience Islam, because it is absolutely convinced that once we experience it, we will definately love it.
If you simply leave the nasi lemak on the table and tell the Japanese guest he is welcome to try it whenever he likes, he may very well do so.
But if you insist that he eats it every morning, tell him you will be disappointed if he declines, and repeatedly assure him that he will eventually learn to love it despite his burning tongue and upset stomach, he is likely to push back.
When he does, it does not necessarily mean he hates nasi lemak.
Likewise, when many non-Muslims push back against what they perceive as persistent religious persuasion, it does not necessarily mean we are Islamophobic.
Sometimes, it simply means that we have had enough.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@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!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
