Kalla & A Moroccan Waiter
Oct 9th, 2006, in News, by PatungA Moroccan waiter in Spain harangues vice-president Jusuf Kalla over his failure to observe the fast while travelling.
In something that would almost certainly never happen in Indonesia it appears Kalla and his group sat down in a cafe in Madrid, after having just flown from Chicago, via Frankfurt, and ordered coffee. The waiter who served them, one Hamad, asked Kalla if he was a Muslim. Kalla replied in the affirmative and the waiter proceeded to ask why he wasn’t fasting.
A debate then ensued with Hamad advising that Muslims must always fast during Ramadan. Kalla defended himself by saying that he and his group were currently musafir, that is, on a journey, and therefore temporarily relieved from their obligation to fast. Hamad however did not agree. Travelling by airplane was no excuse because passengers simply sat down, no exertion was done.
Hamad though finally relented and served the coffee, on the condition that Kalla observe the fast the next day.
22 Comments on “Kalla & A Moroccan Waiter”
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Tony says:
I wonder what the waiter’s employer reaction might have been.
A waiter harassing a customer!
I hope he fired him. -
Hassan says:
they were just having an argumentative conversation, nothing more. no, “or else” or any such words. it’s not that the waiter forced kalla to do something or refused to serve the customer or anything. he simply reminded kalla. is reminding others a crime these days?
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A crime?
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Molisan Tono says:
yeah… sort of “shut down business” reminder… well, that kind of reminding is obviously a crime Hassan.
i agree to remind someone is not against the law, but reminding and think that other people who doesn’t fast is “a bit weird” and disagree with other comment why they don’t fast … is simply not sincere reminding.
don’t your religion show you how to respect other people choise and liberation of faith?
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Anonymous_aloy says:
Well, someone has to remind the waiter to mind his own business and do his job.
Along the same lines, it’s about time for those who observe the fasting month to also respect the rights of those who choose not to fast, whether they are non-Moslems or nominal Moslems, for example by letting food vendors, restaurants, and businesses open as usual.
When that happens, then we can be more optimistic about Indonesia being a pluralistic society.
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Miss Indo 07 says:
Well according to me this is just funny, a vice president of a country where street vendors and poor abang baso are forced to close and stay at home, stop earning money for his family during ramadhan, was reminded by a waiter to fast.
Hehe, maybe that can be a lesson for him and after coming back to indo he can stop those little stupid regulations and let abang baso sell his food.
And still, that waiter has no right to remind, yes Hassan, it’s wrong because religion is between you and God.
What’s more, that waiter has nothing to do with Kalla, maybe Kalla’s mom or family or at least friends have rights to remind him, but that waiter? Who the heck is he?
Lucky he’s not Indonesian, can you imagine an Indonesian waiter remind Kalla the great vp to fast? I guess there will be a bullet inside his head several days after, mysteriously, hehehe. -
Miss Indo 07: “religion is between you and God” is a Christian principle, do we (non Christians) suppose to follow them too? Muslims acknowledges three principles in religion: relationship between God and humans, between fellow humans, and between humans and his surroundings. Muslims should apply his religion to all three systems.
i actually respected that waiter for standing up to a high ranking official from some other country, it’s not easy to speak up (let alone remind) to a vice president of a foreign country. it would be easier for any of us to just let a vice president do whatever he wants, or indeed kiss his behind (or kick his behind, whichever way you prefer it).
PS. if you choose to kick his behind then you’re more rude than that waiter 😀
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Hassan :Muslims acknowledges three principles in religion: relationship between God and humans, between fellow humans, and between humans and his surroundings. Muslims should apply his religion to all three systems.
—> i hope it’s not including burning clubs n forcing abang baso to throw away all his baso?
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Apparently according to the radicals, and those who like to defend them, burning clubs and forcing abang baso to throw away their means of livelihood are consequences of “respecting the rights of those who fast”.
Hey, how about respecting the rights of those who choose not to fast next time? Wouldn’t this be a sign of a tolerant and mature ummah?
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well, you won’t find it easily in Islam aloy.. the “Islam” Hassan believes is some part of radical Islam who believe each person who is lack of discipline is devil worshipper and should be burn or their baso thrown away all over the street…
that’s the peacuful Islam you will understand next decades… our fella Hassan here is one of those crazy maniac baso thrower. simply don’t understand that even mr. baso need money to feed his family and celebrate idul fitri. or poor mr. baso does not deserve of good living from his hard sweat earning, maybe?
no wonder this type of Islam full of violent…
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Miss Indo 07: “i hope it’s not including burning clubs n forcing abang baso to throw away all his baso?” off course not, we are not allowed to do things unjustly, specially unjust violence. 🙂
maybe those who do those things are just desperate, but I don’t support themanonymos_alloy: you said “the “Islam” Hassan believes is some part of radical Islam who believe each person who is lack of discipline is devil worshipper and should be burn or their baso thrown away all over the street”¦” ask around, you’ll find that I’m not one of those radicals. how can you say that I’m a radical while none of my comment supports those rampant acts of violence?? one word anonymous_alloy: sotoy.
btw, I had wrote on the thread “no baso in ambon (& padang)”:
what a waste of good food”¦
the local government should also give them a solution, an alternative way of making a living, instead of just making them stop selling in the month of ramadhan.so, I’m not “one of those crazy maniac baso thrower”. i’d say you wanted to stereotype me, didn’t you?? a Muslim who spoke about strictness and obidience to his God must be “radical” isn’t it, smart alec??
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hallo… earth to Hassan….
it’s me who said :
“the “Islam” Hassan believes is some part of radical Islam who believe each person who is lack of discipline is devil worshipper and should be burn or their baso thrown away all over the street”¦” not aloy… wash your face dude… you must be sleepy all day sweeping the roadside stall for food. hahaha… -
Hassan, it was Molison Tono who said “…”the “Islam” Hassan believes is some part of radical Islam who believe each person who is lack of discipline is devil worshipper …”
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I guess he is too sleepy last nite….
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Molisan Tono: oh yeah, my bad! :p maybe I was too sleepy last night, cause i usually surf late at night. but I guess I just got my “copy paste” routine all wrong, hehehe!
but, my reply did answered your own accusation that I am radical. the answer is: I’m not.
anonymous_alloy: apparently I am mistaken. that was an honest copy paste error. my appologies on that matter. 🙂
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Vivien says:
Haasan, were you there when a waiter told a customer something that was none of the waiter’s business?
You said earlier:
“it would be easier for any of us to just let a vice president do whatever he wants…”
Yes, and it would be the right thing to do, with a VP or anyone else. It’s a basic courtesy not to inflict your beliefs on other people. (Unless it’s Islam – sorry, forgot.)If you claim not to agree with “radical acts of violence,” why do you persist in attempting to explain and justify and make apologies for them? or sweeten and sanitise the waiter’s rudeness when you weren’t even there?
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vivien: is a waiter who reminded someone about something can be called “radical”? were you there? then how did you know whether the waiter did it in a rude way or a polite manner?
what you don’t understand is Muslims are required to remind each other in a decent way. if the reminder was ignored, than that is no longer our responsibility (except when the person is about to commit a crime, in which case we must try to stop that person).
and I am not justifying those acts of violence, I was just trying to understand and figure out the reason why those people do those things. they are after all human beings, not the devil or something. I wanted to find out why did those people went that far, what make them tick so much to do all those violence. humans when pushed hard enough, will push back. I wanted to know why and who pushed them on the first place to make them give such a violent response.
vivien, when you see some people commit an act of violence, the easiest thing to do is to condemn them. well I want to look deeper than that. I don’t like unjustice and unbalanced oppinion, when some people gang up to pass judgement and condemn others, i tend to side with the people that hadn’t got the chance to defend their actions. I don’t like to simply follow the choir. naive? maybe…
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I guess i agree with Hassan this time. not only in Islam, in Christianity, we all believers obligated to remind our fellow… but the question here Hassan… if we read once again very carefully… this waiter is suspiciously asking things… why this and why that… which for me… as a guess… that’s not polite came from a waiter. his/ her manager should stop her or warn her/ his about it.
guess is king… and mind your own business dude….
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Hassan, the only thing I can agree with you about is that neither of us witnessed a waiter sticking his nose into someone else’s business. Neither of us knows what he said, and how he said it, but it doesn’t matter how he said it. Telling someone else how to behave is rude.
and mind your own business dude”¦.
Well said, Molisan Tono!
Apart from that, Hassan, your attempt at reasoning confuses me. I quoted your comment about “radical” violence, and I referred to a rude waiter. Rudeness and violence are different things. You seemed to have mixed them and made them one. Perhaps you were tired when you wrote that too.
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vivien: maybe you’re right, he was rude by some people’s standard. but our beloved mr. kalla doesn’t seem to mind what the waiter had done, didn’t he? look at him (or his pictures), smiling all the time, hehe! i love that dude!… not!
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KSJ says:
What a stupid thing! Shouldn’t that Morroccan waiter be aware of his job not of other people’s life?
Comment on “Kalla & A Moroccan Waiter”.
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This would be one of those very rare moments I am on Kalla’s side. Not on the ‘musafir’ thing but simply on the fact that no one should have a right telling you to fast or not to fast. The Moroccan waiter would get along well with FPI members.