COMMENT | I am a Muslim. Growing up, my parents only celebrated the Islamic holidays. During my school years, my ustaz and ustazah taught me that Muslims do not and should not celebrate any other holidays.

Throughout the years, I made a conscious decision not to take part in any cultural or religious celebration that weren't my own.

But it wasn't easy, I must say – living in a melting pot that Malaysia is, the impulse to be part of these celebrations was quite difficult to resist.

Islam, as practised in our country for many years, is a result of a vast array of interpretations from many religious scholars and religious institutions.

More often than not, it is the same intolerant strands of Islam as taught by many adults throughout my childhood – one which encourages Muslims to cut themselves off from the non-Muslim community and view others with contempt.

It took me many years to build up the courage to stop accepting, to start questioning and to begin challenging these interpretations – and the reason I found the strength to do so were my children.

I simply did not want to raise my children in a world full of conflict where Muslims viewed non-Muslims with contempt, and non-Muslims viewed Muslims as if they had only one agenda – to convert the world by any means necessary (or at least destroy anyone who stood in the way).

A new tradition

In the hope of eliminating these conflicts from our lives, my children and I began celebrating non-Islamic celebrations nine years ago, including Christmas...