to tudung or not to tudung,what was the question?

Unless you have been avoiding the newspapers and the TV like a plague, you would have noticed that there is a big discussion on whether the non-Muslims in the police force should wear the tudung during official functions. Many have called this "ruling" as imposing Islam upon the non-Muslims and the Muslims have said its just part and parcel of the official function and its for uniformity and it has nothing to do with religion.

Before I go further, I will have to share my personal experience of being in a residential college which did not indicate in anyway whatsoever in their prospectus and brochures that it was a fully residential-Muslim college. Anyhow, I somehow found myself in there for a year and a half and came to realise that the dress code and all other rules were governed by Islam. They didnt go that far as to make Non-Muslims wear the tudung but they did make us wear the baju kebaya or kebarung for official functions. No other national customes were allowed.

Living up to their Muslim reputation, a group of scholars (made up mostly of guys) held a big gathering in the Mosque at the college premises and demanded that a certain sponsor gave the right to their scholars to don the tudung. These scholars under this scholarship did not want to wear the tudung. After all it was easy, if you want to be under this scholarship, then you should not be wearing the tudung. If you want to, then well, you will have to take it off (if u were wearing one prior to being offered the scholarship). I mean there are MANY other scholarships for the Muslim community. You dont have to choose this particular one. I digress. So, these guys were riling up the crowd and saying that they will abandon their scholarships just to fight for the rights of these girls to wear the tudung.

Of course us Non Muslims were not allowed into this gathering but a friend of mine who was there told me the girls whose rights these guys were "fighting" for were so quiet during the whole gathering because they didnt see the fuss and they didnt even want to wear the tudung anyway! So, as the gathering progressed, more scholars realised that it was actually quite ridiculous to be fighting for the rights of someone who didnt actually care too much about it in the first place. Eventually, everyone left and the guy who ochestrated the whole thing was left well, pretty much deflated that no one took up his "challenge" to abandon their scholarships to fight for their fellow Muslim's right to wear the tudung.

What is the point of this story?

Well the point is this. The Star newspaper carried a story of three non Muslims in the police force who said they had no problems whatsoever with wearing the tudung. "Its part of being in the police force. After all, its only for official functions."
So why are all the politicians fighting over it?Why are Non Muslims arguing over whether its right or wrong?
Why are we fighting someone else's battle? When they dont even have a problem with it in the first place?

Arent there more important things to discuss about in Parliament? Or is everyone in there busy checking the dictionary for derogatory names to call each other?