For Summer and me, the border between Thailand and Malaysia was marked by a drastic change of clothing. In the train compartment next to us, a Thai girl wore kitten heels and short, short, shorts. She got off at the Thai border. At the next stop, her place was taken by six giggling Malaysian girls, in jeans and sweaters and full hijab - scarves completely covering their hair.
I had several thoughts at once: surprise at the sudden shift, after months of travelling through Buddhist countries; liberal disapproval (I wouldn’t want my daughter to dress like that); a memory of a discussion with Summer about whether the hajib, when not obligatory, is or is not oppressive; and underneath it all, a feeling of discomfort. Images of Islam in western media are so bound up with bad news that for a moment I was wary of a group of laughing teenage girls.
***
One night in Istanbul, a man sitting next to me at dinner said: "This city is so cosmopolitan! You can walk down the street and see Turks, Slavs, Serbs, Croatians, Chechens, Caucasians." I stared at him blankly. I wanted to say "Sorry, all you white people look the same to me." But that would have been rude.
Kuala Lumpur on the other hand is the most racially diverse city that we’ve seen so far on this trip. Nationally, sixty-five percent of the population are Malay (almost all Moslem). Twenty-five percent are of Chinese descent, and most of the rest are Tamil Indian. The capital skews Chinese and Indian, with a large dollop of European ex-pats and tourists. Many Moslem women do not wear the hijab. As a model of racial harmony it rivals the bridge of the Enterprise. The government, a coalition of several groups bound together for almost fifty years by their mutual dislike of the minority Islamic fundamentalist opposition, is dominated by Malays but committed to a multicultural society. Summer and I found it very easy to relax there. Malaysia ought to be an ideal tourist destination for mainstream Americans: exotic, beautiful, rich, modern, great shopping, English-speaking, a little conservative, religious. If only they were Southern Baptists.
***
When I was in school, we learned that the history of the world came to a halt with the fall of the Roman Empire, and apart from the scribbling of Irish monks and Magna Carta, it was all nasty, brutish, and short until the 15th Century and the modestly-entitled Renaissance.
In the Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia, which I recommend for its exhibit on Islamic architecture, history begins in 622 AD, reaches its apex in the 15th century, and peters out with the decline of the Ottoman and Moghul Empires. Following the conquest of Spain, Cordoba apparently became the ‘intellectual center of Europe.’ This was during what we call the Dark Ages, so we can’t really argue with that. In a discussion of the achievements of Saladin, it is mentioned in passing that he ‘came to Egypt to repel foreign invaders.’ This is the only reference to what we call the Crusades.
While all kids should study the history of their own country in some detail, the world would be a better place if they had to have at least a superficial knowledge of everyone else’s.
***
Wahab walks up to me and introduces himself. He is wearing the white skullcap of the Haji, and he says that he is from Kelantan. This is the one province governed by the PAS, the Islamic fundamentalist party. The PAS recently banned Kelantan’s traditional dance, the Mak Yong, ostensibly because of its Hindu influences, but mainly because it is … a dance. The Ministry of Tourism is not impressed. It would be like Florida banning Disney, or old people. This week the PAS introduced a bill in the national parliament that would make it a crime to leave the Moslem faith. (I bet the Baptists would love that.) It has no chance of passing.
I tell Wahab that I am from New York, and he welcomes me to his country. His son studied engineering in the US. We talk about the museum briefly, and he points out that there is no discussion of the schism in Islam between Sunni and Shia, the ultimate cause of the civil conflict now brewing in Iraq. I say that Malaysia seems to have done a great job of managing ethnic differences. He agrees, and explains that if he spoke out against the Chinese or Indian community the ISA - Internal Security Agency - would detain him indefinitely without trial. He says that is what Iraq needs: a strong government.
We may or may not agree with Wahab. So long as the US government is ‘renditioning’ suspects to unsavory allies and locking people up indefinitely without trial at Guantanamo, we are in no place to criticize Malaysia.