My 18-year-old son sent me a message on our family WhatsApp group yesterday.

"Ma, did you read (former law minister) Zaid Ibrahim's advice to the young Muslims in Malaysia? He called Malaysia a sick Muslim country and urged us to hijrah (migrate) to UK in order to live a better life."

My 20-year-old daughter was quick to add, "Yeah, I read it too. What a stupid thing for a politician to say!"

"Funny but why do you disagree with him - I thought all this while you both had a lot of complaints about how things worked in Malaysia?" I teased.

"Ma, remember when a few pakciks at the mosque lectured me about wearing proper attire when attending Friday prayers a few years ago, and I was really upset about it?" asked my son.

"Ya. You were wearing your favourite Metallica T-shirt," I typed.

"Yeah. Everyone advised me not to wear it again to the mosque as not to offend anyone - but you told me if I saw nothing wrong in wearing a clean T-shirt (never mind that it had a skull on its front), I should not be disturbed by what others think or say."

I said, "And you continued wearing it to the mosque..."

"...because I knew I did nothing wrong. Likewise, if we know we are in the right, why leave the country and let the wrongdoers win?" said my boy....