My nine-year-old daughter called 'bukan Islam' in school

COMMENT | A few days ago, my nine-year-old daughter Athena told my wife and I that a boy in her class called her and her friend names.

I’m not fussed about these things. It’s normal school kids antics. A bit of teasing and light bullying teaches children about life and builds character.

“So what did he call you?” I asked, expecting her to give me something lame like "Athena the antenna" or "Athena busuk" or something like that.

“He calls us orang bukan Islam lah, pops,” she replied.

Whoah! I wasn’t expecting that! Athena explained to me that he called them that because they spoke English with each other a lot.

Okay, to be honest, I may not have expected it, but I’m not shocked or surprised at all. Things like this happened to me when I was her age.

I have a mixed-race family and there are many races involved. But the two main races that were directly involved in producing me would be Malay and Chinese.

I don’t identify just as a Malay or...