Arab Kucing Kurap

A Casual Discourse on Arab Chauvinism within the Local Muslim Community

In the Malay language, ‘Kucing Kurap’ translates roughly to mean ‘a cat with a fungal infection’. The phrase is often used as a metaphorical expression to denote the less desirable members of society. Placed side by side with the word ‘Arab’ it makes for a catchy, albeit offending, rhyme.

Racial jibes within the local Muslim community are not uncommon. While most are done with tongue in cheek and harbour no deeper malaise, none is repeated as often as the one above.

My personal encounter with the racist phrase ‘Arab Kucing Kurap’ came one evening as I was relating a personal encounter to an acquaintance. Upon listening to my story, he blurted out the racial maxim in anger.

I am getting married this August to an ethnic Arab lady. She maintains her title and clan affiliation as part of her official name in the National Registration. Her Identity Card states 'Arab' as her official race.

But it’s not something that I give a damn about. A person’s ethnicity is not, and never was, a criterion in my choosing of a life partner. Destiny dictated that our paths crossed. I am marrying her for her maturity despite her age, her patience in being the family’s main breadwinner, her duty to God, and her ability to tame my guts.

Her guardians have given their blessings to the marriage. However, as more distant relatives got word that she is about to marry a non-Arab, murmurs of discontent erupted into loud angers of protest. One of the relatives even went so far as to call up her mother to ask why consent had been given to this marriage given the obvious fact that I am not an Arab.

“Arabs are superior”, one of her aunts stated vehemently one day.

“In the after life, Arabs will be given a special standing to be at the front lines with the descendants of Prophet Muhammad. That is why Arabs must only marry Arabs and preserve the race”, she maintained.

I am not sure where she received this piece of ‘religious information’ from. But I am beginning to think that misguided ideals such as these are the roots of Arab chauvinism and misplaced sense of superiority within the Muslim community – even right here in multi-racial Singapore.

Islam is a religion that rejects the notion of a "superior race" and holds equality amongst all mankind as one of its predominant ideals. There are no caste systems and no privileged clans within the religion. And there is absolutely no truth to this aunt’s claims that “Arabs will be given a special standing” in the after life.

In fact, Prophet Muhammad made it very clear in his final sermon that was delivered shortly before his death:

“All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; white has no superiority over black, nor does a black have any superiority over white; except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood.”

The notion of true Islamic meritocracy is further emphasised in the Quran Surah Al-Hujurat, Chapter 49 Verse 13:



"O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware."

It is clear that there is no basis in Islam on which Arabs here have developed their chauvinism upon. But this misplaced sense of superiority has no social or economic basis either.

In Singapore, the days of wealthy and prestigious Arab families are long gone. Today, the social economic status of the local Muslim community has largely evened out. Our top national students, wealthiest entrepreneurs, highest ranking civil servants and most brilliant politicians are all ‘Ajmis’ (what Arabs call the rest of us non-Arabs).

In contrast, Arabs have largely failed to produce a meaningful impact on the local community beyond what their forefathers have done in the past. Today, their children are largely ordinary members of society who do no better than the average Muslim family. In fact, some of my wife-to-be Arab relatives are on Government assistance for low income families and are staying in a one-room taxpayer subsidised apartment. The fact that they still think of themselves as the "superior race" still baffles me.

Let us not forget that when the early Arab Muslims were under siege from murderous infidels, Muhammad sent them to take refuge in Abyssinia, a black nation that housed and sheltered them. This event is reminder enough that skin colour must never be a barrier for us Muslims to co-exist harmoniously as one brotherhood, each in need of the other.

In the context of a multi-racial country like Singapore where Muslims comprise of a myriad of very different ethnicities – Indians, Chinese, Malays and Arabs, this dogma of a "superior race" is detrimental and contrary to what Islam preaches. Muslims here will not achieve anything beyond an insignificant footnote in the story of Singapore if we continue to divide ourselves along the racial line. Let us abandon all forms of racial stigmatisms within us, including racial jibes such as ‘Arab Kucing Kurap’.