Kerukunan Antar Umat Beragama

Tsaaahhh... Judul yang sungguh bernuansa PPKn ...


Anyway, salah satu slogan (retorika?) di Indonesia kan itu ya.. Bagaimana dengan di Melbourne sini? So far so good ;p.





Waktu saya pulang ke Banjarmasin waktu liburan kemaren, salah satu pertanyaan yang banyak muncul berkisar soal itu. Bagaimanakah kamu Muslim diperlakukan di Australia? Well, secara umum, saya akan bilang, since Melbourne is such a diverse city with various ethnicities, cultures, and religions too... I'm happy to say that we're all doing okay here. Memang masih ada beberapa kasus berbau rasisme. It even happened to me a few times. Tapi selama kita masih jaga diri, there should be no problem. Di kampus saya saja disediakan Musholla, dan Meeting Point alias kantin kampus menyediakan counter makanan halal (oh, and their french fries really worth it to try!). Bahkan kalo ga salah, kemaren saya lihat di Tullamarine sudah ada Praying Room.

Saya ga akan bercerita secara global. Cuma pengen share pengalaman pribadi aja. Saya bersyukur bahwa teman-teman saya disini menghargai pilihan saya menjadi seorang Muslim. Mereka menghargai bahwa saya harus sholat 5 kali dalam sehari. Malah pernah beberapa kali mereka yang mengingatkan saya: "Hey, it's already dark and I haven't seen you pray. Do you want to do it now before we go? We'll wait for you".

Waktu saya field trip ke Mt. Donna Buang dulu juga, saya udah bilang ke Kale, dosen saya, that I have to pray at noon. Jadi pas break makan siang, sebelum dia sendiri makan dia mendatangi saya sambil membawa kompas, dan bertanya: "Do you want to do your prayer now? I've got a compass with me so you can face the direction that you need." Alhamdulillah... Waktu berwudhu pun saya dibantu teman saya, Justin, yang menuangkan air dari botol yang saya bawa. Oh, dan dia memotret saya waktu saya sholat, he said : "You look so bright in that white clothes" dengan wajah terpana.

Teman-teman saya juga menghargai bahwa tidak semua makanan bisa saya makan. Jadi kalo makan bareng, mereka suka nanya: "Is it okay if we eat here? Shall we find some other place? Do you want to find a place where they serve vegetarian food? Or you want to buy somewhere else then we eat together?". Pernah waktu kami dinner bareng di rumah Xue, where everyone bring some food and eat them together, Xue mengirim e-mail ke kami semua yang dia undang, untuk mengingatkan yang lain: "since Ami is a moslem,make sure that your food has no alcohol, and also bring some vegetables menu because Jamie is a vegetarian, and Ami can only eat halal meat".

Semester ini juga kan saya akhirnya memutuskan pake kerudung. Dan waktu kami pertama kali ngumpul bareng for coffee, Jamie, one of my friends, told the others (Lu, Xue, Kelvin, and Michael): "Hey guys, you should congratulate Ami. She's wearing a veil now. It's a start for her to be a better person" *amiiinnn*. Dan mereka semua langsung menyelamati aku...
Soal kerudung ini juga, Matea pernah berkomentar soal salah satu kerudung yang aku pake, yang kebetulan model "kerudung instant" gitu: "I really like the kind that you're wearing now. You know, some other women wear scarves around their head, but I really like the one that's already in shape like the one you're wearing now. It's just so cool!", yang langsung di-iyakan sama Donna, temenku yang lain... See, ga semua bule beranggapan bahwa kerudung itu "aneh".

Salah satu hal yang paling berkesan buat saya dalah waktu Jim, salah satu learning advisor di perpustakaan ngomong gini: "One thing that I respect about Islam is, it teach you to be a hardworking person. It's one of the most basic thing in Islam. So usually, when your religion is Islam, you're more willing to work harder.". Guess what? Jim itu is actually an atheis.

Most of my friends are actually kinda agnostic. "Religion is really not my cup of tea", kata salah seorang teman saya. But still, they respect me for my faith and what I believe. So why shouldn't I respect them too?

Alhamdulillah ya Alloh.. Betapa besarnya nikmat perlindungan yang Kau berikan pada hamba di sini...