Muslim of mixed blood here, but dominantly Malay.

@ zacharyyeo
where have you been living? you obviously haven't seen the so-called modern Malays. some of their sexy dressings can rival or even better Chinese girls.

I echo most of mshakir83's sentiments.

a common misconception is that the name has to be changed upon conversion. any Muslim who graduated from religious school or high school would tell you that a name change isn't necessary.

usually converts change or add a Muslim name into their name to denote a new beginning in their life. that's all. as long as the name has a good meaning. usually people choose Arabic names because it's the roots of the religion.

Sharia' law states that marriage can only be Muslim to Muslim, so a conversion is necessary if a non-Muslim wishes to marry a Muslim. however, conversion should not be forced.

the biggest problem in our country is that our Government is trying to impose Islam on the people, especially non-Muslims, with their blatant disregard for the privacy and practicing rights of non-Muslims, and their so-called religous propaganda. and for the non-Muslims, especially those confined within their community, the Government is the only representation of Islam that they know, which of course everyone here knows that they aren't a good representation of it, with all the corruption, discrimination, oppression and whatnot. so it's natural for the non-Muslims to harbour a little bit of resentment towards the religion. thing is, even Prophet Muhammad never forced Islam onto anyone, so who are we to force?

the key is to lead by example. show the other party what it's like to be a Muslim. make your behaviour speak for itself without having to say anything. it's like love. why is a girl attracted to a guy in the first place, or vice versa? behaviour. same goes to religion. only then, the convert is able to appreciate the true beauty of Islam as s/he will willingly embrace it and learn about it. Prophet Muhammad was one who led by example, and naturally got people attracted to Islam.

interracial relationships and marriage cannot be helped in our plural society. being born and bred in Subang, I've been around the Chinese society for most of my life, especially after my Malay friends went to boarding school after Form 3. have been in a relationship with a Chinese before. no biggie. in fact the Chinese society consider me as one of them. it's not unusual for me to be the only 'Malay' in a whole group of Chinese.

so please, don't get the wrong idea regarding us Muslims. I am a practicing Muslim, I respect my religion, and I get very irritated at the very inaccurate representation of Islam the Government is showing to the people. seriously, we have a lot of work to do to clear our name.

I usually refrain from commenting in these kinda threads, but after seeing too many misconceptions and narrow-minded comments, I feel like I have to clear some things up.



This post has been edited by nerd: Jun 4 2009, 07:23 PM

whoops, I suppose I misphrased that sorry.

what I meant was that conversion should not be done in a forceful way, but rather the convert must accept the faith willingly.

I suppose the reason behind it is to avoid confusion with the kids later on.

As for more elaborate reasons to answer your question.. I'm afraid I don't have enough knowledge to do so but I'm sure there's a good reason why.

This post has been edited by nerd: Jun 5 2009, 09:16 AM