There are Fine Line Between Malay And Muslim

Sam once asking me "Do Muslim like to go to Penang ?"

I was pause for a while . Not looking for the answer but just wondering why he use the word "Muslim" instead of "Malay"? I knew he was referring to the majority race of Malaysia, instead of the majority believers which is Muslim. Many of my Chinese friend seem failed to understand the differences between "Malay" and "Muslim". It wasn't my first time to explained to them the fine line between those two.

Let us look back to history and definition of Malays it self. The ancestor of Malays are believed to be seafarers who are well knowledge in oceanography. They moved around from island to island in great distances between New Zealand and Madagasgar, and they served as navigation guide, crew and labour to Indian, Persian and Chinese traders for nearly 2000 years. Over the years they settled at various places and adopted various cultures and religions.

The Malay race refers to a cultural and linguistic sphere of influence, covering the archipelago of modern-day Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore the southernmost part of Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, East Timor and occasionally new Guiena an outlier of the Cocos (kelling) island.

Most of the languages spoken in the region are part of the Malayo-Plynesian Family (a sub-group of Austronesian languages, including Tagalog, widely spoken in the Philippines), Javanese spoken in Java and Malay, spoken in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

A thousand years ago, the religion of the Nusantara region was a mix of Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous traditions. New religions—including Christianity but predominantly Islam—have been established in more recent centuries.

The culture in the region is influenced by a number of religions. Islam has the largest following, and is predominant in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia amongst the Malays in Singapore and in the Philippines by southern Filipino Muslim. Catolismn is predominant in the Philippines and East Timor. West Malaysia is home to great numbers of Buddhists and Christians of various denominations, and Hindus and Muslims. Hinduism predominates in the Indonesian island of Bali.

So, he we can clearly see that Muslim and Malays are two different thing. Someone cannot come into conclution that all Malays are muslim, and offcourse vice versa.