APRIL 1 — A few days ago, a friend of mine called me about a problem she was facing with her little five-year old daughter, Hannah.

The little girl had come home from kindergarten one afternoon and headed straight to her room. Being the concerned mother, my friend peeked into her room.

She had laid out her prayer mat, put on her telekung and was praying. Of course, my friend smiled to herself seeing what a good little Muslim girl her daughter is.

Then, after she was done praying, the little girl adjusted her prayer mat to face a different direction and started praying again.

My friend was puzzled and after her daughter was done, she entered the room and asked her why she had done that.

“Hannah, you know that you are praying facing the wrong direction, right?” my friend asked.

“Yes mama. I know,” replied her daughter.

“Now why is that? Anyway, you already prayed a few minutes before.”

“I’m praying to my second god, Jesus Christ, mama.”

That was when my friend started panicking and called almost everyone she knew to ask for advice on how to handle the situation.

“Zan! She said her English friend, Stephanie, told her about Jesus. But Stephanie isn’t English. Her skin is the colour of burnt toast!” my friend yelled over the phone.

Apparently, her daughter had been discussing religion with a kindergarten classmate who happens to be an Indian Christian.

Of course, the most appropriate response I could come up with in this situation was to laugh my ass off. My friend hung up the phone in annoyance.

Now I know that many Ultra-Malay-Muslim-Supermen out there are now probably jumping up and down frantically on hearing about such a situation.

I’m sure they will now demand that the little burnt English girl be stamped with a ministry approved “chop” declaring that she only be allowed to talk to Christians.

I, however, would much rather see things in a different and more positive perspective. And I’m convinced that little Hannah’s perspective is a positive one.

Hannah doesn’t care about Stephanie’s religion and befriended her. And they are doing exactly what friends do and that is to share feelings and thoughts.

She didn’t judge her friend. She just listened with an open heart. And when she came home, she prayed as she normally would as a little Muslim girl.

Then, clearly intelligent enough to know the difference, she changed the position of her prayer mat and decided to pray to Jesus. She decided to try out her friend’s faith.

I’m not saying that all Muslims should now go home and pray to Jesus. The point I’m trying to make is that we should be understanding and accepting.

What is religious pluralism if not understanding the different faiths around us and accepting the different ways people choose to believe?

Recently, I’ve been quite ashamed of how we have been treating our Christian brothers and sisters in Malaysia (you’ve all read and seen the news!).

Surah Al-Baqarah from the Quran clearly shows that Islam does not reject any of the teachings that came before, such as Christianity and Judaism:

“The Messenger (Muhammad) has believed in whatever that has been revealed to him from his Lord; and the believers all believe in Allah, His Angels, His books, and His messengers.  (And they say:) We do not differentiate between (the claim of) any one of His messengers.”

In fact, Islam didn’t even encourage us to reject those who did not believe in any of the Abrahamic faiths, as shown in Surah Al-Kafirun:

“O unbelievers! Neither do I worship what you worship; nor do you worship what I worship. Neither am I going to worship what you worship; nor are you going to worship what I worship. To you shall be your religion and to me shall be my religion.”

So for me, it’s really okay for little Hannah to try and “pray” to Jesus Christ. She’s only five years old. And this is where her parents are going to play an important role.

She is lucky to have parents who can and are willing to explain to her the importance of understanding and respecting the beliefs of others, while holding strong to her own.

I sincerely believe that Malaysia, and the rest of the world actually, would be a much better place if there were more Hannahs running around.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.