This year’s forum on social media was organized by both NGOs in the Christian Ecumenical Worship Centre and was attended by young people of every faith, including a visiting group of Muslim students from a public university in the peninsula.
Everyone was very relaxed, ate lunch together and the programme was designed so that those who had to go off to Friday prayers had ample time to get to the mosque.
While such a forum may have raised eyebrows in the peninsula, or may even not have been organised out of fears of vocal criticism from certain parties, these types of events are not at all unusual for Sarawak.
Sarawakians are used to living with such religious diversity and have no time for the sort of angst that we over here have.
Some families have members of different faiths, so excluding some people from family events and festivities is simply not an option.
I listened with astonishment the big-heartedness of the local religious authorities.
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For instance, every year at the Maal Hijrah (Muslim New Year) celebrations, alongside the usual Muslim recipients of the Tokoh Maal Hijrah awards, there is always a non-Muslim, one recognised for his or her efforts to foster better relations between the different faith communities.
What’s more, the Maal Hijrah parade also includes a contingent of non-Muslims.
For someone from KL, used to the ever greater segregation on the basis of religion, this information was jaw-droppingly awesome.
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