The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page

- St. Augustine

Today in Twitter, I found this headline ‘FPI Sweeping Warung Makan di Puncak’ and all that is left to do is just sighing. When will the government have enough conscience and guts to eradicate these scums and let us Indonesians live ‘unity in diversity’? So, instead of opening the link (because it will definitely be another same old story of FPI acting like a God), I decided to write another blog post down.

I feel so lucky to grow up and not becoming one of them -the religious discriminative pain in the ass. I am blessed to come from a multicultural background that it allows me to learn a lot about tolerances and mutual respects.

My mom was a Christian before she married to my dad, that way I have numbers of families that hold another religion than me.  Every year, we will drive along to Bandung to visit relatives who celebrate Christmas. That’s when my love for christmas tree grows, all those christmas lights, snowy cottons and presents under the tree. Same thing happen in Eid day, the relatives who are not Moslem will come to our house and eat the delicious-fattening special dish. Followed by laying down watching tv for hours.

Another place where I learn about differences are my english courses. More than often, I studied in a place where I become the only pribumi. That’s where I first learn about Chinese’s customs. The first time I was questioning what is Imlek and why they didn’t get a holiday for Imlek. There were also times I get so annoyed with my pribumi friends in elementary school who likes to named the Chinese as ‘cokin’. I don’t like the term and it feels like the term is a way to distinguish and create boundaries between my pribumi friends and my Chinese friends. I just find it insulting.

And this is what I’ll never forget: Ramadhan 2010. It was back in UK, being far away from home and in a country where you can barely hear Adzan. However, it was on of the warmest Ramadhan in my life. Every single day in my flat, all of us were sitting there in kitchen at 2.30 am and 10 pm. Most of them do not even fast but they will be there, even matching their eating habit and writing dissertation schedule just so  we could all eat together for Sahur and Iftar.

So FPI pricks, just in case you are intellectual enough to use the Internet and accidentally stumbled into my blog, I am a Moslem and I have lived in a different places with different cultures and people from different religions. Not once have they stopped me from my fasting, or forcing me to have a drink in the club. Oh, did I forget to tell you that they cooked me food and brought me home cold-thirst reliever smoothies from Starbucks for Iftar?  Another time, they also left dissertation writing and keep me company for Sahur.

So would you mind minding your own business? Nothing to do, eh? No business? Try google ‘mutual respect’ or ‘interfaith tolerance’ yes? Or if you insist to do what you do, leave the religious attributes will you? Heaven has no dress code, so you could change your fashion taste and leave the turban and white gamis.

Oh, crap. I write it in English. Now, they will never know. *another sigh