Sabah shows way in religious harmony


http://starstorage.blob.core.windows.net/archives/2013/2/12/columnists/ceritalah/Father-Francis-ceritalah.jpgAs Father Francis says: 'In a family, a single thing which is suggestive to me is which sacrament is not a means of disunity though to bring us closer. After all, you have been just a single family.'
For Francis garbage bin Dakun, a 44-year-old Catholic priest, Hari Raya celebrations have been a family affair: "I take leave to spend time during home. I'm from a family of twelve: 7 of my brothers as well as sisters have been Muslim. My father, who became a Catholic, ended up office office building two kitchens in a house."
Karim Raslan, The Star
At a time when a open discourse is working with rancour as well as distrust, a still though really cool mutual apply oneself of a Dakun family is so refreshing, if not uplifting.
IN Sabah, a line in in between religions often runs through a middle of a family.
Needless to say, many West Malaysians with a black-and-white proceed of viewing a world competence excellent such vicinity a little disturbing.
Still, as we discovered a couple of weeks ago when we was shooting myAstro AwanishowCeritalah Malaysiain a former timber boom locale of Keningau, issues of identity have been all a some-more liquid as well as reduction divisive a serve divided you have been from Kuala Lumpur.
For Francis garbage bin Dakun, a 44-year-old Catholic priest, Hari Raya celebrations have been a family affair: "I take leave to spend time during home. I'm from a family of twelve: 7 of my brothers as well as sisters have been Muslim. M! y father , who became a Catholic, ended up office office building two kitchens in a house."
"We have been Dusun as well as in a past, you had no religion. We followed a traditional beliefs. My father (he's passed divided now) was abobohizan.
"He was similar to a kampung doctor as well as when you were sick he would take caring of us given he understood a various spices as well as medicines."
"I became a Catholic when we was 14. It was a personal preference as well as a family reputable it.
"I did not hear God's voice job me to be a priest. However, we was twenty-five years old during a time as well as operative in a shipping association in Kota Kinabalu, we saw which a there was a great need: which a Church lacked priests. It took me 7 years of precision in Kuching to turn a clergyman as well as serve two years investigate in Rome.
"We make make use of of Bahasa Malaysia in a eremite ceremonies," (indeed you filmed a wedding he presided over in a small church outward a town).
"The make make use of of of a word 'Allah' is normal as well as excusable in a community.
"We have been using it from well into a past. We have been so comfortable with a word as well as cannot assistance though make make use of of it during a service."
Father Francis' elder sister Nooridah Hidayah bte Dakun is a Muslim as well as an ustazah.
She is also intensely active in a village giving unchanging talks on Islam as well as a Quran as well as a surprisingly innovative multi-faith discussion last year in in between Muslim, Christian as well as Buddhist eremite figures.
Listening to Ustazah Hidayah as she talks about her childhood, it's transparent which she was sensitive as well as really spiritual from an early age: "I was tighten to my Atok, my grandmother as well as any year they had a ceremony to pledge a family's safety a 'menerebung'. However, we would feel worried. we was fearful which a 'mener! ebung' d idn't really protect us, didn't cover everything.
"I had doubts as well as was uncertain. we began questioning everything: where did a rain come from, a storms during night?
"It was then which we came across a word 'Allah.' At a time we was a Christian as well as we found a word in Christian books.
Finally, we managed to find a Syahadah itself as well as a sentence made me feel during ease as well as during peace.
"When we was fourteen we went to a residential school.
"There as well as with a assistance of an elder sister who'd converted as well as married a Muslim, I, too, became a Muslim. It was a difficult time.
"The family was unhappy as well as it took 5 years for my father to accept my preference of religion. Then a single day as we was about to pray, he called me by my Muslim name, Hidayah."
Her initial onslaught for acceptance by her family has given Ustazah Hidayah a larger degree of empathy as well as warmth: "We contingency accept others for their faith. We contingency havehikmah.
"We should proceed others respectfully. There is no need to verbalise harshly."
Both hermit as well as sister have been soft-spoken as well as hesitant as well as there is a slight aura about them, generally when they have been together.
As a West Malaysian Malay we can't assistance though find a Dakun family's history as well as their respective personal journeys to Christianity as well as Islam enormously instructive.
Moreover, during a time when a open discourse is working with rancour as well as distrust, their still though really cool mutual apply oneself is so refreshing, if not uplifting.
As Father Francis says: "In a family, a single thing which is suggestive to me is which sacrament is not a means of disunity though to bring us closer. After all, you have been just a single family."
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