I'm a Chinese Malaysian Muslim... get it?

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

I have always been reminded that culture can be apart of religion (a way of life) as long as it doesn't contradict with Islamic law. Malaysia is a very funny country, you see. Some people have skewed perception and definition about religion, culture, race, nationality, etc. Just take the Constitution of Malaysia for a start (no intention to insult this man-made constitution):

Article 160 defines a Malay as a Malaysian citizen born to a Malaysian citizen who professes to be a Muslim, habitually speaks the Malay language, adheres to Malay customs, and is domiciled in Malaysia or Singapore. As a result, Malay citizens who convert out of Islam are no longer considered Malay under the law. Hence, the Bumiputra privileges afforded to Malays under Article 153 of the Constitution, the New Economic Policy (NEP), etc. are forfeit for such converts. Likewise, a non-Malay Malaysian who converts to Islam can lay claim to Bumiputra privileges, provided he meets the other conditions.

(From Wikipedia)

Can you see the whole mixture of race (Malay), nationality (Malaysian), religion (Islam) and culture (Malay)? Is there no Malay Malaysian who is a Christian and follows Malay culture? Is there no Indian Malaysian who is a Muslim and follows Malay culture? Is there no Chinese Malaysian who is a Muslim and follows Malay culture? Is there no Chinese Malaysian who is a Muslim and follows Chinese culture?

The first category is those that the Malay Muslims would like to punish, for example, Lina Joy. The second category is the Mamak who open 24-hour restaurants all over Malaysia and are mainly populated in Penang and Selangor. The third category is the Baba and Nyonya who we can find in Melaka. All these three categories of Malaysians speak Malay as their habitual speech. Now, I'm the last category.

My parents are Malaysians and I am born in Malaysia. My grandparents are from China. They are not Muslims. My mother tongue is Mandarin and so my habitual language is Mandarin or to be specific the dialect of Hakka (Hakka is not a language). I learned Mandarin first at kindergarten and primary school, then in Year 2, I started to learn Malay, then in Year 3, English - all in the KBSM syllabus. I have never learned and accepted Malay as my way of life simply because it is too alien for me. I only have 2 Malay classmates throughout my time in primary and secondary schools, and we were never close.

So, who am I? I'm a Chinese Malaysian who is a Muslim and speaks Mandarin as my habitual language. According to the Constitution of Malaysia, I am not a Malay, not in a million year. To put it logically, how can one change his/her own ethnicity or race? If you are born a Malay, you are a Malay for the rest of your life. If you are born an Arab, you are an Arab for the rest of your life. You can't convert from Malay to Arab, can you?

For sure, you can convert from a Buddhist to Muslim. That is me. I change my religion (a way of life) but I don't change my origin. Some people take it seriously about their origin and be proud of it. If you want to promote Islam as the best way of life given by ALLAH to mankind through the teaching and examples of the Messanger, Prophet Muhammad (saw), you can't advertise it as:

convert to Islam = becoming a Malay

If you put that equation in advertising Islam to non-Muslims who are (majority) non-Malays in Malaysia, you are just going to get backfire. That is why it is so difficult to find a non-Muslim family accept their child's conversion to Islam in Malaysia, because you are telling them that they are losing their own child and become a Malay! What a great idea!

Many Chinese in Malaysia don't have a problem for their children to convert to Christianity because it is not associated with any particular race. Buddhist is also associated with Chinese in Malaysia. That's why you can hardly find a Malay or an Iban converted to Buddhism.

On top of all these arguments, why do we need to take races so seriously? Did the Prophet (saw) not remind us that there is no one race which is more superior or inferior than other races in his last khutbah (sermon)? ...No Arabs are more superior than the non-Arabs and no non-Arabs are more superior than the Arabs...

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.