I was rather shocked myself with the treatment that my fiancee and I received while vacationing in Malaysia ([#1] We are people, not animals [/#], Feb 17). I happen to be a dark-skinned Malaysian and my husband happens to be a blond blue-eyed American.

Almost everywhere we went, my fiancee received stares. People unabashedly stared and looked at him up and down as if he was an eight-eyed alien from Mars with twelve legs and two tentacles.

It's almost like Twilight Zone when you consider that some of these people staring at him were wearing T-shirts that said 'I Love America', carrying GQ or Cosmopolitan and were standing next to a giant Christian Dior ad featuring a blond model that they probably 'worship' every night before going to bed.

On top of the stares, we also received rude remarks in reference to our skin colour and looks. One salesperson in a supermarket tried to sell me skin-lightening face cream so that I won't look so dark next to my fiancee. Another man yelled to his friends to take a look at "the Blondie and the Darkie" walking together - in English, obviously meant for us to hear.

I can totally empathise with BA. He or she has obviously had a much, much worse experience than I. Perhaps these racists don't realise that in the US there are many African Americans who have much lighter skin than they and they would be 'Darkies' there!

The worst thing about this is that in the US, I am treated better by whites than by Malaysians in Malaysia. In my own country I cannot walk around with my lawful husband without being harassed.

As a fellow Malaysian Muslim, I am ashamed. Where is the practice of treating everyone equally because in the eyes of Allah (swt) we are all the same no matter what race or color? Where is the legendary Malaysian hospitality? Is it reserved only for white colonialists who look down their long noses at your brown skin?

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