A few years ago, I told a friend that Muslims can actually touch a dog because there is another sect in Islam which allows that. The information was in conjunction with controversial ‘I want to touch a dog’ campaign held in Kuala Lumpur. What I received from my friend was a total objection because according to her, Muslims cannot touch a dog. That is what has been practice and acceptable in our society. I was stunned hearing her reason as she did not even think a second about the fact she just heard. This does not only happen to her but most of the Malay community. Her response makes me wonder. Don’t these people ever think what is right and what is wrong in the religion? Is our religion which is Islam unquestionable? They just follow what has been told for generations.

Since I was a child, my parent taught me about Islam besides learning about Islamic subject at school. Over the years there are many practices which I felt perplexing and assumed that Islam is tough and stringent. However, my view about Islam changed when I traveled to Turkey and saw many practices are so different with from where I came. From that day on, I started my quest to search the truth about Islam. I read many Islamic books and listened to Muslim clerics preaches from different countries. I wanted to know the specific topics, for instance, Fiqh and four prominent schools of thought for Sunni Islam. There were so many questions in my head such as why are these sects differ from each other in regard to practices and hukm. Furthermore, I also read the Quran translation because I was curious what was written which I never had interest before.

After the readings and searching, I found that Islam is a religion full of compassion and it is not tough nor stringent. There is always a way to practice Islam according to the situation which suits the physical condition and geographical area. My visit to Turkey makes me think that something was not right with what the Malay society believe. Many things which are allowed in Islam but it is taboo in my culture. They even exaggerate some practices. Soon I realized that many people are not able to differentiate between religion and culture. This is apparent to the Malays.

Although I am slightly heated with my people, I could not totally blame them. For years, our government has prevented all sort of forums, seminars or open discussions about religion. Any alien interpretations of Islam which are not a norm is forbidden to be discussed. Books are banned and religious scholars are detained or silenced. As a result, the Malays only look at the fundamental form of Islam with a narrow mindset. They are not able to think wisely and accept anything as long as it contains Islamic element. The detention of prominent Turkish scholar, Mustafa Aykol and the ban of his books is the recent event which has proven that our government is not willing to unfold beyond the norm even though it does not contradict with the Islamic teaching.

Thus, for the sake of better Muslim Malays and Malaysian in general, we really need an open-minded society with high tolerance towards each other. To gain fruitful results, we need supportive government to encourage open discussions to reduce any gap of misunderstanding about religion. Hopefully, thinking is no longer a crime in Malaysia.