Are we breeding bigotry at home?

The people in this story happen to be Chinese and Christian. Which serves as a reminder, at a time when we are rolling our eyes at the ignorance and intolerance of Muslim authorities, that no one has a monopoly on bigotry.

Deborah Loh, fz.com
WITH the government and religious authorities taking an increasingly hard line on race and religion, you can be forgiven if you feel that there is little to celebrate this Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day.

That said, it's time Malaysians stop allowing those in power to define what "unity" (read: conformity), "respect" (read: Sedition Act) and "tolerance" (read: acquiesce to the feelings of one race and religion) mean.

It's time more Malaysians take things into their own hands, where they can and with what influence they have, to mitigate the bigotry that is poisoning the nation's soul.

What do I mean? Here's a story to explain:

I recently helped a friend take a class of young teens on a photography trip to different houses of worship. The group of one dozen kids were all urban, Chinese and Christian. The idea was to familiarise them with religions other than their own, besides learning some photography basics.

The kids, aged 11, 12 and 13, were accompanied by four adults who acted as teachers and chaperones. We meandered around the Petaling Street area. We walked to Masjid Jamek but found it closed to tourists due to renovations. We then went to the Taoist temple and the Sri Mahamariamman Hindu temple on Jalan Tun H S Lee.

For some of the teens, it was to be their first time in a house of worship of another faith, having been born into Christian families and being raised in an almost-wholly Christian environment all their young lives.

As we approached the two temples, some of the teens began a discussion on how "scary" they thought temples were.

"Those statues freak me out," a girl declared.

"The Hindu gods are all half-naked. It's disturbing!" a boy commented.

"My mum says we shouldn't go to such places because there are evil spirits!" shrieked the same girl.

"Do we really have to go inside?" the boy said plaintively.

"Yes, that's the plan for this trip," I said.

"Then I'm gonna delete all the photos of the temples after this!" he announced.

Read more at: http://www.fz.com/content/are-we-breeding-bigotry-home#ixzz2dK50dAHk