I refer to Malik Noor's letter Halal food a question of tolerance .
First of all, I have to say that I agree with Malik's opinion that Malaysians are getting too sensitive for their own rights without being sensitive to the rights of others. However, I wish to emphasise that this mentality applies to both non-Muslims and Muslims.
I do not agree with Malik's opinion that eating non-halal food in front of a Muslim is disrespectful and intolerant. As a non-Muslim Malaysian, I can assure you that when we, or our schoolchildren, eat our lunch packs, we do not mean to offend anybody.
Eating lunch comes naturally when we feel hungry, so we just take out our lunch packs prepared by our wives/husbands/mothers and eat it. Our Muslim friends might not even know whether our food contains any ingredients forbidden by Islam, unless they are overly sensitive and ask, or even worse, examine our lunch packs when we are not around.
Unless you find a non-Muslim co-worker or classmate intentionally dangling a piece of pork in front of you and taunting you with it, I see no reason why eating our home-made lunches in front of our fellow co-workers or classmates of various faiths is to be considered being intolerant.
It all boils down to whether we are being overly sensitive or paranoid about this issue. Nobody should accuse their friends of being disrespectful on the basis of the ingredients of their lunch packs.
Furthermore, since it is not possible to analyse everybody's lunch packs a la Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), what plays on our minds are just suspicions.
If we are paranoid, most probably we will enforce ludicrous rules to allay our fears like the one at Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Mega . It is, in my opinion, another case of an overzealous headmaster wanting to shove his own idea of practising religion down the throats of all his students.
If he is worried about tainting canteen utensils with non-halal food, the least he could do is to ask the canteen operator to wash them thoroughly with soap while wearing rubber gloves. At most, he can always buy two sets of canteen utensils and wash them separately.
If you still think the headmaster's decision is correct, we must seriously evaluate whether we should be sending our young Malaysians to advanced countries like Britain, Australia, America, Japan, etc. to further their studies.
Pork is as high on the menu as chicken and beef in these foreign university cafes, not to mention their affinity for alcohol, and the halal butcher is always 50kms too far away. There is always a possibility that our students might get 'tainted', but why aren't we complaining that Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale are being intolerant of other people's faith?
We might say that Malaysian students are just a minority over there, and complaints against the majority will fall on deaf ears because the majority will always force their rules on the minority. Well, in the reverse point of view, aren't we doing the same thing to the minority back at home?
