My short sojourn as a location manager for the Malaysian segment of a regional documentary was quite a reflective experience. I had expected it to be hectic, but I did not expect my trip have me question my role, my individuality as a Muslim. March 18, 2005 was also a momentous day for me (personally) and that kicked off the trip.

Mitra Media Komunika was an Indonesian production house, and Yuli Yismartono, an editor at Tempo magazine, had contacted me, asking if I wanted to be part of the team that was travelling around the region to film Muslims in Southeast Asia.

The documentary would investigate five countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines and finally Indonesia. 'Living Faith' (the working title for now) is an exploration of Muslims at work, play and home, questioning themselves as Muslims. Malaysia was the second leg of the shoot.

To say that both the crew and I had multiple discourses on religion and Southeast Asia would not be true: we were too tired from all the running around, and trying not to kill the hired drivers that drove us to all our engagements. Apart from this little incident that demonstrated our language differences, it was all work:

"Gee! (Gee was one of the crazy drivers we had) Gee! Putar mobil lagi! Nanti pantat mobil kemek! " (Turn the van around, you'll wreck the back of the van!)

It's not always that you can shock a hardened film crew member that's been there, done that.

Green paddy fields and rainbows

The shoot was conducted in KL, Terengganu and Melaka, and overall it was a success, in the sense that we got the sound-bites we wanted. And much as I do not want to knock the project, and the team for giving me the chance to work with them, I felt some unease.

Everything was just too clean.

The objective of the documentary was to provide viewers a positive image of Islam and Muslims. Muslims in Southeast Asia are very different to Muslims in other countries, such as the UK. And we all know that Islam and its believers are having a bad cred these days. Non-Muslims are reverting to Islam at great speed in the Western world, and yet we're lepers in the eyes of Westerners.

Thing was, two weeks before the shoot I had watched a screening of A New Life in a New Land: The Muslim Experience in Canada, hosted by the Canadian Embassy at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia.

It was a case of dj vu: again the same feeling of dissatisfaction. Yes, we have one or two problems, but really, it's a happy happy world we live in. Yippee yi yay.

It's become a PR exercise for Muslims to prove to the world that Islam and Muslims are not such fearsome entities. As a Muslim, I too do not want other people to think that we're crazy militants that carry Uzi guns as handbags. (Though the very idea may be up John Galliano's alley, no?)