It has been the longest time since I did an introspective blogpost.
Felt like it was just weeks ago we celebrated Syawal and yet here we are, at the fasting month's doorstep again.
I chanced upon a beautiful video about racial origins today on social media. This video was about the idea that no human is an island. That we are unique yet completely everybody. About there being no such thing as a master race.
The individuals in the clip had so much revealed to them, with some of them carrying DNA markers from as far as they could have ever believed.
A lady found herself in tears , welcoming with open arms, an actual blood cousin, from Turkey, a country she professes to disdain. Under the honest eye of science, she learned firsthand the futility of hanging on to racial bias.
Another chap, Ray - strong, masculine and prideful of his English heritage also came to know he had a quarter of his genes originating from Germany. A country his family has fought against in the wars before.
As I am sat there watching them, I quietly enjoyed his small world-view crashing down. Not so smug now eh?
Then it happened.
The realisation that I am racist too.
In my own closeted mindset, I assumed that Ray was this 'on-his-high-horse-white-is-right' type of person. Oh the hipocrisy of it all. In that split second, racism reared its hideous head. From the recesses of my own heart.
Let it be known that internalised hate, bigotry and racism, even when unspoken and hidden, even in jest as I often do exclaiming I am not Malay, is still an evil to be confronted.
Because if we do not combat it it becomes so easy to nourish the notion that we are better than others. This holier-than-thou attitude will manifest into more sinister forms. Always ready in the darkness to pounce onto anyone who dares opine differently.
I blush in shame recalling the times I acted in a racist manner - behind the wheels, in discussion with trusted mates or even by my lonesome.
Islam teaches to treat all as your brothers, love all your neighbours equally and there should be no compulsion upon those who are not Muslim. There are lines in the holy Quran that speaks of unbelievers but these are never, never to be used as a cheap excuse to hate. They are there in the good book as a descriptive adjective, a historical record if you may, of an era when so much was happening.
It is not a free-pass to treat others as beneath us. Ever.
People who pick and choose to practice only specific parts, separate from the holistic teaching Islam has to offer, is completely missing the point and have in fact ran astray.
Thusly, back to the slap to the face.
What should anyone, when at times we can be so far removed from the tenets of Islam, ever do?
Start with continously striving to cleanse our heart of bigotry. Small steps.
I am Mohd Razee B Mohd Salleh and I am from everybody.
Welcome back Ramadhan. It has been too long since we last met.
Felt like it was just weeks ago we celebrated Syawal and yet here we are, at the fasting month's doorstep again.
I chanced upon a beautiful video about racial origins today on social media. This video was about the idea that no human is an island. That we are unique yet completely everybody. About there being no such thing as a master race.
The individuals in the clip had so much revealed to them, with some of them carrying DNA markers from as far as they could have ever believed.
A lady found herself in tears , welcoming with open arms, an actual blood cousin, from Turkey, a country she professes to disdain. Under the honest eye of science, she learned firsthand the futility of hanging on to racial bias.
Another chap, Ray - strong, masculine and prideful of his English heritage also came to know he had a quarter of his genes originating from Germany. A country his family has fought against in the wars before.
As I am sat there watching them, I quietly enjoyed his small world-view crashing down. Not so smug now eh?
Then it happened.
The realisation that I am racist too.
In my own closeted mindset, I assumed that Ray was this 'on-his-high-horse-white-is-right' type of person. Oh the hipocrisy of it all. In that split second, racism reared its hideous head. From the recesses of my own heart.
Let it be known that internalised hate, bigotry and racism, even when unspoken and hidden, even in jest as I often do exclaiming I am not Malay, is still an evil to be confronted.
Because if we do not combat it it becomes so easy to nourish the notion that we are better than others. This holier-than-thou attitude will manifest into more sinister forms. Always ready in the darkness to pounce onto anyone who dares opine differently.
I blush in shame recalling the times I acted in a racist manner - behind the wheels, in discussion with trusted mates or even by my lonesome.
Islam teaches to treat all as your brothers, love all your neighbours equally and there should be no compulsion upon those who are not Muslim. There are lines in the holy Quran that speaks of unbelievers but these are never, never to be used as a cheap excuse to hate. They are there in the good book as a descriptive adjective, a historical record if you may, of an era when so much was happening.
It is not a free-pass to treat others as beneath us. Ever.
People who pick and choose to practice only specific parts, separate from the holistic teaching Islam has to offer, is completely missing the point and have in fact ran astray.
Thusly, back to the slap to the face.
What should anyone, when at times we can be so far removed from the tenets of Islam, ever do?
Start with continously striving to cleanse our heart of bigotry. Small steps.
I am Mohd Razee B Mohd Salleh and I am from everybody.
Welcome back Ramadhan. It has been too long since we last met.
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