Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Ethnic Indian Muslims Want To Be Called Malays!

A section of the ethnic Indian Muslim community living in Malaysia want to be known as Malays rather than Indians and have petitioned the government to streamline the laws accordingly.

Members of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Youth Movement (Gepima) want to be known as Malays and not Indians since the the country's constitution states that an Indian is a Malay “if he professes the Muslim religion, habitually speaks Malay and conforms to Malay custom”.


“I am a second generation Malaysian and I can safely say that from wedding rituals to the food we eat and the language we speak, we conform to Malay customs all the way,” said Gepima president Mohamed Kader Ali. (The Statesman)

***** Changing one's ethnicity by legislation is no real change at all. One must question the motive behind the petition and wonder if economic and other such materialistic reasons are behind the desire of this group of people to forsake their true ancestry for that of a totally different and unrelated one.

An Indian Muslim colleague of mine informs me that apart from those who are products of mixed marriages, broadly speaking 'Indian Muslims' here can be divided into
three categories. The first group which consists of the majority of them, consider themselves Indians, are fiercely proud of that fact and speak their native tongue fluently, be it Tamil, Malayalam, Urdu etc. Despite being Muslims their worldview, cultural and traditional practices and diet are more akin to Indian Hindus and far removed from those of the Malays. They also maintain very close ties with their kith and kin in India.

The second group comprises the 'neo-Malay wannabes' who despite having all the characteristics of the first group, put up a convincing external appearance in terms of spoken language including impeccable Malay accents, food and even clothing to set them apart from other Indians. This group consists of both Muslims by birth and the converts.

The third group are the true 'Indian' Malays. These are people who have over centuries 'evolved' into Malays and are more at home in Malay settings than an Indian Muslim one.

While those in the third group are genuinely Malay, I suspect that some from the other two groups, especially the second are the ones hankering for change of their God given ethnicity.
Image - Source

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16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is called "selling your arse" and people who reject their own ancestry for economic reasons are lowest of the low, so IT IS better that they flock to the other side.

11:27 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Monsterball said...

I'm sure Mamak Maidin and Mamak Merican will oblige them.

Just salivating at the thought of More bumiputras !

11:34 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ethnic Indian Muslims Want To Be Called Malays--- there are 150,000,000 of them in India alone, excluding the 250,000,000 in Pakistan and 100,000,000 in Bangelah-desh

11:37 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Blady Mamaks are a bunch of sellouts....I doubt ethnic Malays would even accept these sell outs.

11:55 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Guy in the glass said...

If there are no special privileges for the Malays, I wonder if they will still want to be called Malays. The right approach would be to drop the ethnicity altogether and just be called Malaysians.

2:40 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Yan said...

anon said:"Ethnic Indian Muslims Want To Be Called Malays--- there are 150,000,000 of them in India alone, excluding the 250,000,000 in Pakistan and 100,000,000 in Bangelah-desh"

Wah, like tat we finished lah! We already have problem with Indonesian wanting to become Malay & now mamak also??
Might as well ask our Malay brothers & sisters tapau & handover the whole country to Mamak & Indonesian lah!

3:00 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I suppose mahaiguru would be first in the line.

3:25 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The UMNOputras want to be Arabs...the Indonesians want to be Bumiputras...the Mamaks want to be Malays...
This is what happnes when you play Race Politics. This is what Bn has brought us to.
Bangsa Malaysia...that is what we need. The only way to do that is vote the BN out.

4:33 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A donkey is a donkey by whatever name you want to call it. So you mamaks - stop fooling yourselves. Unless you want to bleach yourselves like Michael Jackson and look like a weirdo. Pakailah sikit otak!

4:56 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think they are just too ashame to admit they got Indian blood flowing in them or be associated anything that's Indian so they rather be adopted into Malay. If you ask me, they have no sense of shame or pride!

7:01 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you are Indian, you are Indian lah! How you try to bleach yourself, you are still Indian. Rather than being ashamed of being an Indian, you should be proud lah!

9:52 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh fugly slanted eyes,

Han Chinese are known to be the biggest supremacist of all time,ask the Uighur Muslims and Tibetans,they will tell you.


and by the way the term slanted eyes is way to remind you about the term Mamak. the fact that your eyes is slanted should not bother you.

1:39 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

is way = is a way

1:40 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

shame, shame, shame.

7:14 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't forget to add Dr. Chandra Muzaffar to the list! You can't trust these guys!
His recent remarks on Anwar & PKR "smells" of collusion with the BN!
Becareful lest these "pseudo-Malays" turn around & stab you in the back!
If I am not msitaken, the Malays do not regard the Indian Muslims as Malays (however I could be mistaken. Can someone tell us?).

10:16 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rose is always a rose; it doesn't matter what you call it. Probably, if I want to eat pork, I should call pork as mutton. These people are motivated by economic gain and special Bumipoutera status. If they want to become Malays then, they have to shed their skin, change their nose and other parts of their body including their DNA! It's true that the constitution permits this, but it is dangerous for the genuine Malays and Bumiputeras. They are no Malays; why should we call them Malays? If we do, then Musharraf must be one of the famous Malay. There must be something behind this call!!! Be careful Malays! We genuine Sabahans never call ourselves as Malays, but by ethnic. We are proud of ourselves. Call me Jake.

12:15 PM GMT+8  

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