Eating Dinner in a Muslim Country at Sunset During Ramadan
I pride myself in my geography skills. Maps, flags, trivial (read: unimportant) facts and tidbits, languages, religions, etc. We were planning a trip to Thailand and Malaysia, you would think a geography buff like myself would have polished his geographical chops regarding his vacation destinations. Confession - I did not. Before arriving at the airport in Tianjin, China to board a plane bound for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and standing in line with burka clad women, it had not even donned on me that Malaysia is a Muslim country. If I would have thought hard about it I would have realized that Malaysia’s flag bears the Muslim crescent and star (picture the flag of the USA and replace the 50 white stars with a yellow crescent and star and that is the Malaysian flag).
Malaysia is a country that has no concrete identity, much like the States. It is an interesting fusion of influences coming from Indonesia, China, Thailand, India, and England. Imagine eastern Asian looking people (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) next to southern Asian looking people (Pakistan, India) eating delicious curries and Krispy Kreme donuts, speaking India style English, or Arabic, or Malay, and shopping for flower print burkas.
You would think the religious conglomeration of Malaysia would be equally as heterogeneous. While we were there I guessed the Muslim population to be about 70%. When I got home wikipedia corrected me, it is actually 60.4%, while the buddhist population is only slightly above 20%. There are laws on the books in Malaysia that show favoritism to Muslims and give incentive for non-Muslims to convert, so it is, in the true sense of the term, a state religion.
On our way home from Thailand we had one evening to spend in Kuala Lumpur. On our first trip to Malaysia Chyloe learned that KL had a Chili’s restaurant. The entire time we were in Thailand she was looking forward to eating dinner at Chili’s as the crown jewel to an already fabulous vacation.
We went straight from the airport to our hotel, dropped off our luggage, and made a bee line to the Petronas Towers (when they were built they were the tallest buildings in the world) which house a Chili’s on their third floor. When we rounded the corner and Chyloe saw the green letters with the red pepper behind them I think she heard angels from heaven singing Handel. As we got closer to the restaurant we realized there was quite a crowd gathered outside. It was about 6:15 and we didn’t see waiting at a restaurant as too unusual. Whatever the hostess told us for a wait time, it didn’t matter, we were eating Chili’s. We gave her our name, she asked “smoking or non” (which at this point in history sounds strange to American ears), and we told her whatever was fastest. She told us that there were a few tables which were not fasting so we should be able to be seated in about 25 minutes. Fasting? But doesn’t this restaurant serve...Ramadan!
For the Islamically uninformed, Ramadan is a month in the Muslim calendar where they will fast from sunup to sundown. I quickly briefed my wife on why there were people who were fasting sitting in a restaurant at dinner time. We waited patiently for half an hour and then were seated. As we walked to our seat we noticed that almost every table in the restaurant had plates of food piled on them but no one was touching the food. At this point you have to realize that we didn’t eat lunch that day and my wife has not eaten Chili’s, one of her favorite restaurants, in about 2 years. Some Muslim women are obvious, as their head’s are covered. Even the head coverings come in sort-of-covered, mostly-covered, and all-but-the-eyes covered varieties. However, not all of the women who were participating in the Ramadan fast wore a head covering. I’m wondering if its not sort of like the difference between Methodist and Lutheran.
Somewhere around 7:08, all of the TV channels were interrupted by some Muslim Imam who read some passage, said a prayer, and then everyone began to dig in. You could audibly hear the entire restaurant beginning to eat at the same time. Our food came, and my wife thanked the Lord for his grace, for his love for us, and that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus - all of which are theological and practical truths that the Muslim world is missing.
So what is my point? It was one of the most culturally interesting moments of my life. We are in a Muslim country yet eating at Chili’s. We ordered the chips and salsa yet the lady sitting behind us was dressed in black from head to toe and the only part of her that was uncovered was her bespectacled eyes. Some foreign businessman was sitting at the bar drinking a margarita while the family sitting next to him was waiting for the sun to set before they partook of their meal. ESPN sports highlights were showing on the TV until they were interrupted by a religious leader telling his people to dig in. There is much tension, especially currently, between some people in the western world and Islam. It is easy to make inflammatory comments offending a person or a group of people when the commenter is disconnected from the offended. If we can dehumanize a situation (Islam, immigration, etc) then we free ourselves from the need to be morally responsible to those on the other side. However, upon closer inspection you may be surprised to find out that they are also human, and we are therefore once again bound to a moral responsibility.
*** If you are interested in reading the rest of my conclusion to this article let me know and I will email it to you. For issues of sensitivity and location I have not posted it here.
Malaysia is a country that has no concrete identity, much like the States. It is an interesting fusion of influences coming from Indonesia, China, Thailand, India, and England. Imagine eastern Asian looking people (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) next to southern Asian looking people (Pakistan, India) eating delicious curries and Krispy Kreme donuts, speaking India style English, or Arabic, or Malay, and shopping for flower print burkas.
You would think the religious conglomeration of Malaysia would be equally as heterogeneous. While we were there I guessed the Muslim population to be about 70%. When I got home wikipedia corrected me, it is actually 60.4%, while the buddhist population is only slightly above 20%. There are laws on the books in Malaysia that show favoritism to Muslims and give incentive for non-Muslims to convert, so it is, in the true sense of the term, a state religion.
On our way home from Thailand we had one evening to spend in Kuala Lumpur. On our first trip to Malaysia Chyloe learned that KL had a Chili’s restaurant. The entire time we were in Thailand she was looking forward to eating dinner at Chili’s as the crown jewel to an already fabulous vacation.
We went straight from the airport to our hotel, dropped off our luggage, and made a bee line to the Petronas Towers (when they were built they were the tallest buildings in the world) which house a Chili’s on their third floor. When we rounded the corner and Chyloe saw the green letters with the red pepper behind them I think she heard angels from heaven singing Handel. As we got closer to the restaurant we realized there was quite a crowd gathered outside. It was about 6:15 and we didn’t see waiting at a restaurant as too unusual. Whatever the hostess told us for a wait time, it didn’t matter, we were eating Chili’s. We gave her our name, she asked “smoking or non” (which at this point in history sounds strange to American ears), and we told her whatever was fastest. She told us that there were a few tables which were not fasting so we should be able to be seated in about 25 minutes. Fasting? But doesn’t this restaurant serve...Ramadan!
For the Islamically uninformed, Ramadan is a month in the Muslim calendar where they will fast from sunup to sundown. I quickly briefed my wife on why there were people who were fasting sitting in a restaurant at dinner time. We waited patiently for half an hour and then were seated. As we walked to our seat we noticed that almost every table in the restaurant had plates of food piled on them but no one was touching the food. At this point you have to realize that we didn’t eat lunch that day and my wife has not eaten Chili’s, one of her favorite restaurants, in about 2 years. Some Muslim women are obvious, as their head’s are covered. Even the head coverings come in sort-of-covered, mostly-covered, and all-but-the-eyes covered varieties. However, not all of the women who were participating in the Ramadan fast wore a head covering. I’m wondering if its not sort of like the difference between Methodist and Lutheran.
Somewhere around 7:08, all of the TV channels were interrupted by some Muslim Imam who read some passage, said a prayer, and then everyone began to dig in. You could audibly hear the entire restaurant beginning to eat at the same time. Our food came, and my wife thanked the Lord for his grace, for his love for us, and that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus - all of which are theological and practical truths that the Muslim world is missing.
So what is my point? It was one of the most culturally interesting moments of my life. We are in a Muslim country yet eating at Chili’s. We ordered the chips and salsa yet the lady sitting behind us was dressed in black from head to toe and the only part of her that was uncovered was her bespectacled eyes. Some foreign businessman was sitting at the bar drinking a margarita while the family sitting next to him was waiting for the sun to set before they partook of their meal. ESPN sports highlights were showing on the TV until they were interrupted by a religious leader telling his people to dig in. There is much tension, especially currently, between some people in the western world and Islam. It is easy to make inflammatory comments offending a person or a group of people when the commenter is disconnected from the offended. If we can dehumanize a situation (Islam, immigration, etc) then we free ourselves from the need to be morally responsible to those on the other side. However, upon closer inspection you may be surprised to find out that they are also human, and we are therefore once again bound to a moral responsibility.
*** If you are interested in reading the rest of my conclusion to this article let me know and I will email it to you. For issues of sensitivity and location I have not posted it here.
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