There was once a time when Malaysians would make a virtue of how tolerant they were of each other’s religion and culture. The Open House, where you would invite your neighbors and friends from other races and religions to your house on the festive days you celebrate. The Government would also make a virtue of it, with Ministers holding Open House.
It didn’t matter whether the festive days were religious. The point was to celebrate together with fellow Malaysians your festive days and to celebrate with them their festive days. All sounds very 1Malaysia but while the APCO-inspired key messages of integration and tolerance are being pumped out by the Najib administration by the terrabyte-ful, the Government is also shooting itself in the foot.
Below is apparently the latest directive from the Malaysian Department of Islamic Development titled Guidelines for Muslims Celebrating Religious Festivals of Non-Muslims.
Unspun thought it was a joke until he checked out the content’s veracity at the Department’s official website. Imagine the line of reasoning is that if you are a Muslim and attend someone’s Christmas party and their house has a cross, blinking lights, candles or a Christmas tree you would have tarnished the Islamic faith? Or you go to a Hindu friend’s house for Deepavali and he has some ask smeared on his forehead as is the customary thing, and that tarnishes Islam? How can the mind work in such fallacious ways?
The only thing that gets tarnished if anyone follows these guidelines or take them seriously is their own intelligence.
Does this earn the Department a shit-for-brains tag or a shit-for-brains tag?
Unspun 
Wow. So can Muslims even enter the house of a Christian, Muslim or Hindu, given that there will probably be some kind of religious paraphenalia around?
I guess that at the malls in December when there is someone dressed as Santa, Muslims must immediately flee the building.
I guess this fits with the current climate in which a Chinese MP visiting a surau becomes national scandal.
Religious tolerance still exists in Malaysia, in that everyone is expected to tolerate whatever Muslims do. I’m not sure that it goes the other way though.
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Guess the Indonesians and Malaysians are competing in making more and more stupid rules.
When I wrote that wishing merry Christmas is not haram in my blog, many people warned me to be careful with what I write. I just don’t get it. It’s like being a Muslim is identical with being stupid. Well, may be it is. Not many seem to complain.
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@wulan: Disregard them. We must all rage against the dying of the light. In this case the dimming of human intelligence by those who use religion to bludgeon others with their obtuseness.
@Eurasian: Well, what can I say but that Malaysia is well and truly screwed as things stand
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Malaysia appear only to be a picture of tolerance. There is an insidious wave of happenings that serve to divide the Muslims from the non-Muslims. A Muslim can’t attend a gathering where hymns and other religious songs are sung. He can’t enter a place there there are crosses and other religious symbols. He can’t eat at an Indian restaurant if an Indian God is displayed. There is serious objection to the Ministry of Education’s current efforts to change the syllsbus of the history subject as many suspect the contributions of the non-Muslims are being intentionally removed. The list goes on and on.
Add stupidity to the current equilibrium and you get a comedy of sorts. The country is screwed by the elite politicians.
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