Call us Malays, say Malaysian Indian Muslim youth
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/National/2175500/Article/index_html
2008/03/03
KUALA LUMPUR: Members of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Youth Movement (Gepima) want to be known as Malays and not Indians.
And they do not think this is an outrageous request since the Federal Constitution states that an Indian is a Malay "if he professes the Muslim religion, habitually speaks Malay and conforms to Malay custom".
These traits are practised by Muslims of Indian origin today, claimed Gepima president Mohamed Kader Ali.
"I am a second generation Malaysian and I can safely say that from wedding rituals to the food we eat and the language we speak, we conform to Malay customs all the way.
"As such, Gepima is appealing to the government to streamline the laws and recognise Muslims born after independence as Malays in their birth certificate.
"We have been facing this problem for the past 50 years.
"We have written several letters to the National Registration Department but it keeps saying that it can't do anything about this."
Kader's son, 24-year-old Syed Osman Mohamed, cited an incident last August when he went to the Registrar of Companies to apply for a business permit.
"In the forms that I filled up, I stated Malay as my race and Islam as my religion. But the officer called me up and asked me to change it to Indian, based on how I looked.
"He only had my MyKad and it does not state there whether I am Indian or not," Syed Osman said.
"We feel uncomfortable to be known as Indians, because people automatically think we are Hindus when we are actually Muslim."
Kader added that Muslims of Indian origin suffered an inferiority complex by being regarded as Indians.
"Our children do not even know how to speak Tamil.
"They only converse in Malay and our wives wear baju kurung or kebaya nowadays, no more the saree."
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6 comments:
By race you were bormn an Indian. If you were to be born a Malay then surely God in all his wisdom would have made you to come out of the womb of a Malay woman.
The Muslim Indian youth movement is attempting to get the best of both worlds. They will go to India and claim to be Indians. In Malaysia they want to be treated as Malays and given the rights of Bumiputras. That is surely what they will ask for next as soon as they are declared Malays. But it staggers the imagination that howsoever the politician determines to classify what is a Malay for his own political ends, he certainly cannot make an Indian Muslim become a Malay. This is something like an Eskimo to be called a Negro and a Nigerian.
It;s certainly very intereactive web-site.I like your pics on deity murga,it's caputured from high elevation,nise visuals.Coming to the issuse of "Indians".Let's annalyse the term "Indian".This term was coined to have a collective indentity against the colonial british.In reality it's fusion of many races Aryans,dravidans,mouguals (if you are going to include muslims,there are signifiant number of them in india with moorish,arab,persian blood-line from coastal cities like kerala,maharastra and etc).They speak very diverse lauguage aryan laugages like hindi,sindhi,punjabhi and dravidan lauguage like tamil,telenku and so on.In short datuk samy velu and karpal singh, both their ancestors had a entirely different DNA,lauguages and customs.even before the pre-colonial era,deepavali was not widely celebrated throghout india.In states like tamil nadu,their main festival celebrated was pongal,in kerela,it was onam,in punjab,it was vasisakhi..later on indian govt forged a common indenity to nationalise "deepavali" to be celebrated by all hindus.The term "Hindu" is very diverse,consisting of many religions like shaivatisim (worship of sivan),vaishanavisim (worship of vishnu) and so on..The reality there are many people,who might have indian ancestor's like dr mahatir but they eat and breathe malay.today,the term "indian" which was used to indentify people with indian ancestors in singapore and malaysia.Back,in india it's only one's nationality,not your race.I do agree there might be some ethnic tamil muslim not tamil speaking muslims.who would like to portray themself as malay.It is bit odd.About me, my grandfather (married my grandma who was malay)came from sindh,which was initially part of india,evetually become pakistan.I am muslim with arab,punjabhi and some malay blood.I might be more related to karpal singh than samy velu,I mean from my DNA.I can't indetify myself with ethnic tamil or punjabhi's.So,I would have go to my closest kinsman,that is the malays.
I don't think it's fair to label me as a indian.There are also significant number of tamil-speaking muslims,not ethnic tamil muslims..there is difference.some of them can speak tamil,but their dna is arab,moorish(it's race orginating from northen africa,they are as dark as tamils,they are used by many ancient muslim kingdoms in india as sepoys)they are not ethnic tamils,some of them even have malay blood-line.so the term "indian" remain quite contervisal.end of the day,whom u indetify with that alone matters.I know of many ethnic tamil muslim who are proud of their tamil roots,have vast knowledge in this field
This is only view of Gepima not all India Muslims
Gepima's view not the whole community's view
The annoying fact is not about GEPIMA wanted to be known as Malay but the fact GEPIMA is prentending to be one. Religion has got nothing to do with one's race. The habitual culture that you practice in your daily life represents who you are and in this case it is obvious that habitually they are not Malays. Why would GEPIMA president want to lie about who he is when GEPIMA itself stands for Gerakan Pemuda India Muslim.
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