KOTA KINABALU, Sept 6 — In Ranau, at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu, Muslims and Christians live side by side and are gentler and more tolerant due to their unconventional roots and cultural upbringing, according to Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
Masidi who grew up in the region said that the Dusun Muslims in Ranau have over the decades evolved a culture of its own and credited an Indonesian estate supervisor who was also a traditional healer of sorts as having shaped much of this change.
“The process of Islamisation in Ranau varies greatly from that in the rest of Sabah, and I believe it has resulted in a gentler, non-violent and very tolerant way of Islam that places a lot of emphasis on mutual respect,” he said.Masidi said this during the launching of a book, Islamisation in Sabah, where he extolled the virtues of multiracial and multireligious Sabah, in particular Ranau where Christianity and Islam flourished side by side.
Masidi said his own family’s Muslim roots started when some villagers would look for extra income by rubber tapping in other districts in Sabah, including the British-owned Lobou rubber estate, some three hours by road away near the State capital.
There, post-Japanese Occupation in the 1940s and under the Javanese estate supervisor, known as “Mandur Syarif” villagers who were pagans or had Dusun ancient beliefs, gradually learnt more about Islam through his “rituals”.
“He was known for his healing powers, and it was a way for villagers to move past witchcraft beliefs. Although Mandur Syarif was not a full time preacher, the villagers bought into the rituals as this was standard beliefs then and was greatly influenced by him and it eventually evolved into its own culture,” he said.
One of the examples he gave was that newborn babies were not allowed to touch the ground for the first nine months, or for a certain time period.
Other rituals practiced by the Dusuns of Ranau, of all religions, was the sacrificing of livestock like chickens, for the spirit of Mount Kinabalu to protect climbers and villagers.
“We may be different due to our approach and the history, but we are grateful that it’s made us very tolerant and graceful, and retained a lot of our culture as well. Our spirit is there, although some may say we are lacking in certain knowledgeable aspects of the religion,” said Masidi.Ranau, a district some 2.5 hours drive from the state capital, is known by tourists for being host to Malaysia’s highest peak, Mount Kinabalu, and the Poring Hot Springs. It’s known for its temperate highland weather and vegetation and an almost homogenous Dusun community.
Masidi, who is also Karanaan state assemblyman, said that Ranau was the epitome of harmonious multi-belief community for its high tolerance of its half Muslim and half Christians, with some families of different faiths.
According to him, Christianity also grew during the same time, through a vastly different approach.
“An English priest was stationed in Bundu Tuhan, and there villagers went to him to learn about modern farming techniques which the British taught. Gradually the interest in Christianity also grew in tandem and there was never any friction between believers of the two faiths,” he said.
Although still hailed as one of the most tolerant and harmonious states in the country, Sabah has begun seeing signs of religious tension.
Recent cases include the surreptitious mass conversion of Christians in rural Pitas to Islam, the seizure of Christian materials brought into the state, and pressure to remove a cross from the facade of a mission school in Sandakan.
Christian religious leaders in Sabah have also stepped up their calls for the government to defend and safeguard religious freedom in the state.According to a state census in 2010, Sabah’s Christian population currently stands at 27 per cent while Muslims make up 65.4 per cent of Sabah’s population compared to 37.9 per cent in 1960, three years before it became part of the Malaysian federation together with Sarawak and Malaya. THE MALAY MAIL ONLINE
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