Malay / Muslim community - what, who and why?

written by Ibrahim Musa

It's a little strange for me to pen down these thoughts, as I've not been much of a writer or maintain any type of a blog or diary (funny how ancient this word now seems to be!). I do have experiences writing speeches though, although that would not count for much as the focus was always more about how I would be executing my 'punch lines' when dealing with the crowd, rather than maintaining a good writing style. With your support hopefully my written thoughts can turn into something good that will positively impact our community, inshallah.

In this piece, my focus would be to explore deeper on the somewhat ambiguous Malay / Muslim term that seems to be generally used to describe the Muslim community in Singapore.

First what or who makes up the Malay / Muslim community? Frankly, the Malay/Muslim identity is a rather sensitive and confusing topic that not just puzzles our own, but also the broader Singapore community. And as an Indian Chinese Muslim who is culturally more similar to the Malays, I would like to provide my two cents worth on this.

1. The Malay / Muslim relationship

Beloved Singaporeans, many Malays are Muslims but not all Muslims are Malays. A Muslim is someone who submits his or her will to God while acknowledging the Prophet Muhammad as the final messenger of God. Muslims share strong similarities with Christians and Jews. Muslims believe in an omnipotent and omnipresent God and follow the examples of early Biblical prophets like David, Solomon, Moses etc.

Anyone from any race can be a Muslim. Being a Muslim is not confined to just the Malays.

2. Introducing 'Ahmad' - He may not be who you think he is!

Remember Ahmad, the random dude with curly hair from your primary school who goes to Malay class. He goes to Malay class, eats Malay food in the tuck-shop and speaks Malay, 'confirm plus chope he is Malay mah'! Well the truth is Ahmad could jolly well be Indian, Arab or perhaps even an Eurasian. ‘What!? Zun boh?!’

Chances are that Ahmad's grand-dad might have migrated from either India or Yemen to Singapore. As Muslims, they adopted some of the local practices of the Malays who were the Muslims residing in this region. Over time there was a natural adoption of the Malay culture by Ahmad’s grand-dad and family, particularly since the Malays are generally rather forthcoming and inclusive. With the Malay language widely spoken in the kampungs of that period together with inter-racial Muslim marriages between the Indians, Arabs and Malays, a growing class of 'Ahmads' naturally emerged.

In my opinion, language plays a huge role in defining and preserving ones’ culture. For my household, although ethnically I am half-Indian with keralite roots, I speak not a word of Malayam other than honorific titles that I address my aunts with such as 'Mutama, Mami'. They, like me, speak not a word of Malayalam. On my dad's side, although they are Indian ethnically, they are closer to the Malays culturally speaking as all of them are essentially more fluent in Malay than Malayalam. Interestingly although my family is culturally more Malay, my immediate family does not speak Malay as my mother is Chinese and my sibilings and I studied mandarin at school which further complicates things! For us, the Malay language was only gradually picked up from family gatherings and friends.

I have Indian Muslim friends, however, who maintain their mother tongue like Tamil or Gujarati for instance. For them, it is more obvious that they are culturally not Malays although they are Muslims as they have maintained their own distinctive cultural traditions that are very different from the Malays. In Singapore there is a sizable population of Muslims like me who are not Malays but culturally closer to the Malays than our own parent heritage. I do have a few close friends who are ethnically Indian or Arabs, but culturally we feel somewhat more 'Malay' as we no longer retain our native mother tongue and find ourselves quite different from native Arabs or Indians.

3. Today's 'Rojak' tradition

In the 1980s, my parents did an unconventional and slightly frowned upon thing in those days - they got married to each other despite coming from different backgrounds, culture and even religion at that time. While it may be somewhat acceptable in those days to marry someone as long as he or she shares the same faith, to marry outside of both culture and religion might be taking things one step too far. Thankfully though despite the obstacles, my parents were blessed and have raised a happy and respected family, Alhamdulillah. In our family setting, I've always felt somewhat special, being able to celebrate Eid as well as Chinese New Year as well as impressing both sides of my relatives with my Mandarin speaking abilities. Up till today people get impressed with a tanned skinned guy speaking Mandarin and I doubt that will ever go away ;p

Fast forward to today, within the past year alone, I have witnessed an Arab marrying a Cypriot, Malay marrying a German, Chinese marrying a Malay, another Chinese marrying a Filipino and an Arab marrying a Malay. More so than ever, the Rojak tradition today is undoubtedly on the rise in Singapore and may call into question the relevance of the Malay / Muslim definition that has stood for so long. While race and culture is an important piece of our own heritage, we have to understand though in a multicultural country like Singapore with a very open economy, it is inevitable that we would gradually lose touch with our ethnic roots and associate ourselves with a more familiar identity such as being a Muslim generally or a Singaporean and less so a Malay, Chinese, Indian or Arab or whatever other ethnicity.

Now that I've given a broad context to the whole idea of being a Malay / Muslim, I hope it gives some kind of clarity especially to Singaporeans in general to not assume that any Ahmad, Ali, Arif, etc is certainly a Malay, but chances are they could potentially be Muslims from various ethnic groups. And if that's too confusing, than let's just stick to labeling all of us Singaporeans lah!

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ

" O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted." [Quran 49:13]

In my next post, I’d like to share with you a few examples of other foreign Muslims working in Singapore who have deeply inspired me with their excellent work. Hopefully you would be inspired too! Stay tuned! :)