Houses of worship as unity agents

Our religions are sacred to us individually but the most important act of faith is always to help your fellow human beings regardless of their faiths.

WHEN Malaysia became a country, there were already several religions with large numbers of followers in it. Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism have the largest number of adherents.

This influenced some of the principles of nation-building that our forefathers put forward: Firstly, that every religion can be practised in isolation from each other; secondly, these practices should not encroach upon one another; and thirdly, we must all practise “kesopanan dan kesusilaan”, or good manners, with each other.

I personally feel that after close to seven decades, we all need a new approach to guide us into the future or else we will burn down this country with religious bigotry and extremism.

In a previous column, I outlined what I felt are the spiritual values required to build a harmonious nation (“Spiritual values in nation-building”, The Star, May 10; online at bit.ly/star_spiritual).

I would like to add to that discussion by showing how the management and architectural design of houses of worship can make them significant and effective agents of change in rebuilding this nation better.

Let’s take the simple one first: architectural design. I recently researched the architectural elements, spaces and uses of 10 houses of worship in Kuala Lumpur to find out if these buildings are generally friendly or unfriendly to the community around them.

Sadly, all save one are isolated from their surrounding neighbourhoods. This must change if we as a nation are to go on successfully for another seven decades.

Firstly, as I have written before, future houses of worship should have 30% of their built-up area as open access to the public. The spaces that would be shared by all in the community would be areas like a cafeteria, playground, some of the toilet facilities, landscaped furniture for rest and relaxation, gardens with water features to calm the soul, and even a silent room for reading and study.

Other spaces that would need to have more privacy but still remain open to the community would be areas where the homeless could stay a few nights, and a kitchen for communal cooking.

People of all faiths from the surrounding community should be able to use these kinds of spaces without needing permission or checking the dress code.

Secondly, it would be wonderful if architectural elements such as domes, minarets, steeples and stupas could be modernised so that they will not recall past identities of religious architecture.

This would create a new sense of direction and purpose in the religion as well as affirm that the religion, though rooted in the values held by past sages, is actually progressive enough to embrace ideas from a new age of information and communication to adapt those values.

With respect to managing houses of worship, all the various management committees should include several individuals of different faiths. In this way, one religion’s activities and processes can be known by people of other faiths, and these committee members can raise potential issues of conflict or shared situations to head off any explosive racial, religious or political issues.

Also, all houses of worship should mark the religious events of each other’s faiths and invite the surrounding community to attend. Non-religious activities, such as health seminars or children’s motivational camps and other such events, should be shared by all – basically, each house of worship should serve as a community centre for all living around it no matter their faith.

Thirdly, all houses of worship must demonstrate the ability to convert at least 60% of their space to be used as disaster relief centres in times of natural catastrophes like floods. The recognition that we need each other in the face of something that threatens all of us is one of the highest forms of spiritual enlightenment, testifying to our frailty as human beings and our dependence on others, whether alike or unlike us in faith and culture.

Finally, in relation to our faiths, we must not give in to the opportunism of individuals or politicians who use baiting methods to gain attention and votes by denying dignity, foregoing compassion and not showing respect to all.

If we want Malaysia to change, we must be the change that we want to see first, second and last. Our religions are sacred to us individually but the most important act of faith is always to help your fellow human beings and give love and compassion to all lives as we would expect to be loved and looked upon with kindness and respect ourselves.

In this way, our religions and our houses of worship can be strong and powerful agents for social, political – and in some cases, even economic – change for the better.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.