Do our religious teachings really run in our blood?

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): A Mercedes driven by a man in a clean white shirt and tie stopped in front of a mosque. The man parked the car, got out, went into the mosque and joined hundreds of other Muslims in their Friday prayer.

It was a routine activity. What was strange was that the car was parked right in front of the narrow entrance into the mosque, very close to the ditch that ran along the mosque's fence. When the prayer was over and the congregation left the mosque, they were blocked by the car. They had to go around the car, stepping carefully on the slippery brim of the ditch.

And the man, who got back to his car quite early, seemed completely oblivious to the inconvenience he was causing his fellow Muslims. Inside the car, he took time putting on his shoes and tidying his tie.

I was not there to witness all of this, but Edu did. He was one of the inconvenienced. Edu is a close friend of mine and we chat on the phone at least once a week to share our frustration in trying to understand the behavior of so many people around us.

I also have a real-life story to share with him. On Christmas Eve, I went with my wife and daughter to church. After the Christmas mass, the churchyard was packed with cars, so we waited patiently for our turn to exit. Suddenly the Isuzu Panther behind us started blowing its horn. Obviously the driver wanted us to be more aggressive and press our way ahead so he could follow. We ignored him. Seemingly irritated by our refusal to be provoked, he roared by and cut in front of our car in a hostile manner.

I got upset, and I was about to get out of my car and have a talk with him when my wife said there was no point. "If God has not been able to turn him into a civilized human being, neither would you," she said.

Isn't it amazing? During the mass, less than half an hour earlier, this man shook hands with the people around him and said "Peace be with you". Less than 15 minutes earlier, he stood there in line to receive the Holy Communion. But now he no longer had the decency to wait in line. He even demonstrated belligerence when the Christmas songs from the mass were still ringing loud in my ears.

The man in the Mercedes at the mosque and the man in the Panther in the churchyard are hardly isolated anomalies. Every day we see so many others like them turning into beasts the moment they get out of the door of their house of worship. The transition is so quick that we cannot help wondering whether they really talked to God when they were inside, praying.

Fortunately, as usually is the case, there is also a brighter story. I recently flagged down a Prestasi cab and asked the driver to take me to Dukuh Atas. We had a nice conversation along the way. Pak Cacang told me that he drove his taxi as a "backup profession"; he earned his living mainly as a car broker. Each time he came across a car that was being offered at a good price, he would contact one of the car traders he knew. He received a commission on any sales.

He talked about one of his fellow brokers who once tried to persuade him to inflate the price by Rp 3 million so they could get a bigger share of the deal. He had refused, he said. In his opinion, he should not get a bigger profit than the traders who invested their money in the buying and selling process as he was only providing information. To him, such a profit would be classified as riba (usury).

"I'm a Muslim, and I am a Muslim not just when I'm performing my shalat (prayer)," he added.

How right he was! A Muslim should always remain a Muslim even when not in the middle of his religion's rituals. A Christian should also remain a Christian when not praying. A Buddhist should act just as every Buddhist is taught to act even when he is not inside the temple. What a wonderful world ours would be if all of us truly followed the teachings of our respective religions even when we are not in the middle of trying to communicate with God!

And, by the way, when we arrived at Shangri-La, his meter showed the same amount I would have had to pay had I taken a more reputable cab such as Blue Bird or Kosti.