Islam in Malaysia

Visiting Malaysia is an interesting follow-up experience to my life in the Middle East. Of course, my stay in Malaysia is pretty sure and limited mostly to tourist ghettos so my observations are skewed. While the dominant population of Malaysia is Muslim and there is a sense of conservatism in the atmosphere and the call the prayer can still be heard everywhere, it's totally different from what I experienced in the ME.

Muslim women in Malaysia have more of a presence in the public sphere and in roles that are usually occupied by males. They're behind the counters at the corner 7-11s and other convenience stores. I even saw one woman in hijab who was a bus control (the person who shouts out bus stops and destinations and collects fares). Muslim women even drive motorbikes (you'd rarely, if ever, see a woman on a bicycle in the rural ME.) Gender relations also seem to be more relaxed here. Teenage Malays hang out in mixed-gender groups (perhaps this is just a generational phenomena).

Considering the multiculturalism of Malaysian society, I do wonder about the racial and religious tolerance between the different racial groups here. On paper, it's a pretty tolerant society. You can find a Hindu temple, a mosque and a Buddhist temple all on the same street. A few shops down from an Islamic bookstore is a Chinese-run pub (with a government-posted sign warning Muslims of lashings if they're caught in such businesses). Everyone seems to be able to exist freely in this society though I have heard quiet grumbles from the ethnic Chinese I've spoken with.