“We don’t insult or fight” – Sarawakian Shares How East M’sians Live Harmoniously Despite Cultural Differences

This year, the Ministry of Housing, Nga Kor Ming, was recently criticized by PAS Youth for involving Muslim employees in the Christmas celebration at the office.

A Malaysian man from Sarawak, Alwi Sobrie, recently shared his thoughts about the matter on his Facebook post. He shared how East Malaysians are living more harmoniously, where knowledge about respective cultures can be shared without the conversation turning into a fight or insult.

“We’re not all like this”

In his viral Facebook post, Alwi pointed out that recently, many preachers have been highlighting the differences between Islam and other religions without taking into account other people’s emotions, especially the Christians.

“Here, we live together, surrounded by various religions. As Muslims, we feel uncomfortable when you insult other people’s religions, especially Christianity.”

“Our Christian friends actually hold back their feelings, but because they are mature, open-minded, they responded with calm,” they added.

Alwi explained with a little bit of Islamic history and said that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not resort to insulting other religions, even when he was insulted for preaching his religion.

“Where are the Islamic morals that we want to highlight? Where is the beauty of Islam that should be shown? Where? What is visible now is violence, which is not recommended by Islam.”

Alwi then shared a Quranic verse from Surah Al-Maidah, verse 82, and highlighted the calm responses of the Christians.

The man also apologized to all Christians in the country for all the insults and hurts they had to carry on their shoulder and said,

“I’m sorry. Please trust us, we’re not all like this.”

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