Thursday, September 10, 2009

University Days: The Years I Slept Near A Surau


It was 5.30 am on a Sunday morning.

I was awake, not by effort or by consent but by chance.

It was the call of the azan coming from the college surau.


I had slept for less than three hours.

It was okay.

For five years I woke up intermittently up to the call to worship.

Mostly I went back to sleep.

Sometimes I could not.

Sometimes, it was the perfect way to be the early bird that catches the worm.

On Fridays, I would sometimes listen to the sermon coming from the mosque right next to University Malaya Medical Center.

There was little one else can do on a Friday afternoon.

The college rooms were stuffy and permeated with a stench of sweat-soaked socks.

Studying medical textbooks on a seething afternoon in such conditions were not possible for me.

It didn’t help too that the loudspeakers of the mosque faced my room directly.

Anyway, these were sermons delivered by UMNO-appointed imams.

I had grown accustomed to the hatred and anger in some sermons.

Among the usual Jew-bashing and anti-America overture, there were occasional reminders of how Malay and Islamic supremacy were supposedly under threat from the kafir population in Malaysia.

Anyway, I lived with five years of 200-decibel azan calls and Friday sermons teeming with xenophonic tones - just like so many non-Muslim students in public universities all over Malaysia.

It didn’t make me a lesser Christian.


11 comments:

Kong said...

Even though I am trying to live my life as a Christian, I believe in freedom of religion and those morning calls are part of the Muslim tradition so I would not object. Just imagine, how would you feel if the Muslim starts objecting to the huge cement status of Jesus & Mary in front of the some Catholic Church and animals in front of Chinese temple? To the Muslim, there should not be any display of images, not even their Muhammad.

Having said that, spreading hatred of Jews and American and threat from the kafir population in Malaysia is not acceptable.

sojourner said...

good for you bro...i guess we all went through those 5 years..i just chose to tune out most of the time..in fact, after a while, i slept right through the azan (except for the occasional early awakening)...just like the rightful kafir...;P

Product of the System said...

Yeah anonymous,

I am nothing but an ungrateful non-bumiputra who has lived off the princes of soil for ages.

Indeed, i am.

Just as you are an intelligent reader who failed to see the connection between the story and the photos.

Mohd Muthu Cheong bin Abdullah said...

I lived just 100 metres away from the mosque for the past 15 years. Have been accustomed to the blaring of the loud speaker and now I'm kind of immune to it.

Nonetheless, I wish to point out that the loud speakers were originally allowed for the purpose of calling Muslims to prayer (5 times/day), nothing more and nothing less. Now, they've even been abused to deliver politically motivated messages at deafening decibels.

There are a lot of other examples of abuse of the loud speakers in the mosque, but I shan't go into them here for obvious reasons. Any request to keep to a lower decibel even on compassionate grounds would be deemed a challenge to Islamic supremacy, as if the constitution has no clause that guarantees another individual his right to a peaceful day without noise pollution.

Just know that those who DEMAND others to be tolerant towards their beliefs are the least tolerant people in this country. You should know what I mean, as much as I know what I mean.

To HELL with Anonymous!!! In as much as POTS ain't no Malaysian, you are just a FAKE Malaysian, which is most despicable. The road you are walking is the road to damnation. As a matter of fact, I will get out of this country and I believe POTS will do likewise.

drrita sandakan said...

it was 1999.
i was a first year medical student of UPM (universiti putra malaysia).
in UPM we have a big mosque near a lake, very big one and we have 12 colleges. each colleges had at least 1 surau.
unfortunately we only had 1 small church for the past 30 years. in 1999, the christian student association want to make it bigger, to accomodate more people. our naib cancellor (strong UMNO supporter) said it's OK. following that to my surprise there was a protest among the muslims student. guess what??? the protest was led by the student association (they called it as MPP: majlis perwakilan pelajar). most of them were PAS supporters. they create hate and anger to the naib cancellor and UMNO saying that he is not Islamic or a kafir.
since then i'm no longer a PAS supporter.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous telling POTS to get out of Malaysia. Now think about this....if these people all get out of Malaysia, where are you going to get the money to spend without doing much work? So who is the parasite? Now think!

Patrick said...

Its the same story in every university around the country I believe.

They can have their mosque everywhere like how the McD's shows up every one block or so in KK, Sabah, still we never complain. But when we want to have our church enlarged just a milimeter, they not only complain, they start some racial provocation, demonstration ( step, spit and heckle the Holy Cross perhaps ? ) etc.

This just shows you who indeed has the higher religious tolerance level in this country.

Dr. Hanz said...

All of you are ungrateful of what you have. You all wish for more and you want what everyone wants.. POTS made a post to potray tolerance amongst different religions and how it should be maintained. yet here you are all debating on the issue of the Azan and the Khutbah during Friday Prayers. That shouldnt even be the issue at all or even be raised. We dont say shit about your respective religions neither should any of you complain about Islam. It has been that way in Malaysia for 50+ years and it will remain that way until the end of time. Raising hatred amongst religions and races is just the most cowardly act one can ever do. That being said, there is always a line one should never cross.

Anonymous said...

To anonymous said.."Please get out from Malaysia.blah..blah.blah..U should be grateful to POTS as he/she dare to speak out the truth what is happening here.Not like u.. just like a "Katak di bawah tempurung".

I salute u POTS.. We really need u to speak out.BRAVO.

samraat said...

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Siti Fatimah said...

It's so funny when those who are so ignorant about what's happening around still dare to defend themselves with no shame at all. :)
Before you try to even speak up, do some readings and research before giving your input. Hmm.. a good suggestion would be.. why don't look up how MALAYsia came about..before we even got our independence.

And besides that, i think it's sometimes better to re-read the post and comments before posting up your own respective comments. Because i seriously think, there's a huge ball of misunderstanding.

Having said that, i bid you guys a good day! And POTS... please remain as a good-for-nothing parasite, who works his ass off treating and resuscitating the lives of very GRATEFUL MALAYsians.
(no offence intended to anyone) =)