AUG 6 — Six-year-old Zain Azri was going to school for the first time. He was like any normal and chatty kid, making friends easily and loved running around for no reason.

Now, Zain comes from a pretty liberal Muslim family and is of mixed parentage. His father is Malay and his mother, Chinese.

If you grow up as a Muslim in Malaysia and go to public school, then most definitely you would have had to take Islamic studies. Zain had to.

On the first day of class in Standard One, at a certain time period, Zain was led by an Ustazah, along with other Muslim students to a different class.

The non-Muslim students in the same class stayed back in the same room as they had to take Moral Studies instead.

Once they were all seated, the Ustazah greeted everyone and asked the class if there were any non-Muslims here.

Zain put up his hand and replied, “Ustazah! Ada seorang dekat belakang!”

Zain pointed at Mohd Karim, an Indian-Muslim classmate, who was sitting right at the back of the class.

The Ustazah couldn’t resist a small chuckle and then pretended like nothing happened. Zain just looked around puzzled.

Fast forward a few weeks later and Zain was running around the school field with his friends during recess.

Chinese New Year was coming up and Zain was excited since his mother had started to buy new clothes and shoes for him.

He shared his excitement with his friend Ryan Tan who was equally excited about the coming Lunar New Year.

“I’m going to collect all my ang pow money and buy an Optimus Prime toy!” said Zain.

“I’m going to buy a He-Man sword with my New Year’s money!” said Ryan.

Then, another friend walked up to Zain and Ryan. His name was Faris Irwan. He pulled Zain aside, away from Ryan.

“Kau tahu tak? Orang Islam tak boleh sambut Tahun Baru Cina. Berdosa tahu!” he told Zain.

Zain looked shocked and shook his head. The rest of the day, Zain just kept quiet and never uttered a word to Ryan.

That evening, when Zain’s mother came to pick him up, he tugged on her hand and asked her: “Mummy. Is our family going to hell?”

Fast forward again to the end of the school year. Zain was finally going to complete his first year in primary school.

Zain was sitting in the school canteen eating his mee goreng when several of his classmates led by Faris Irwan walked up and joined him.

One of the boys, named Azidi Kamil, tapped Zain on the shoulder.

“Zain. Kau orang Cina ke?” he asked.

Zain ignored the question. Then another boy, Saiful Azman, tapped him on the other shoulder.

“Ye lah. Kau Cina kan? Faris bagi tahu kita, kau Cina,” he said.

Zain didn’t know how to respond and just shrugged. Everyone then started accusing him of being Chinese.

They kept on pestering him and he still didn’t know what to do. He was never told if he was a Chinese or Malay. Not by his parents, or anyone at all.

So finally, he just blurted out, “Aku bukan Cina lah! Aku Melayu!”

* All names have been changed in the interest of confidentiality.

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