Don't greet Hindus on Diwali: Malaysian Muslims told

The head of Malaysia's Shariat Department has asked Muslims in the country not to greet Hindus on Diwali.

The government distanced itself from the directive, saying it is a narrow interpretation of Islam.

Fauzi Mustaffar, head of Shariah department, in an email directive to office staff has said that Diwali is a religious festival in which Hindu deities were worshipped and greeting Hindus on the occasion was like practicing polytheism to Muslims.

'So Muslims who have inadvertently wished Hindus a Happy Diwali, Happy Durga Pooja or Happy Lakshmi Pooja must immediately repent and not repeat it in the future,' Fauzi said in his e-mail, according to The Star daily.

The government distanced itself from the controversial directive. Abdullah Zin, a minister in Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's Department, said the email sent by Mustaffar was his personal view.

'He has no authority to say Muslims shouldn't wish Hindus because that is like a fatwa (edict). And fatwas can only come from the National Fatwa Council and Jakim,' Zin was quoted as saying.

'Just because you wish someone Happy Diwali does not mean that you have embraced his beliefs and religion. It is not syirik (practising polytheism). In a multi-religious and multi-racial country like ours, it is important to live in harmony and be nice to one another,' the minister said.

Fauzi, when contacted, said the email was in response to employees' enquiries and meant only for internal circulation. Malaysia is a Muslim majority country but has a minority population of Hindus and Chinese who are freely allowed to practice and Diwali is a national holiday.
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/oct/11diwali.htm?q=np&file=.htm

 

Man... the Muslims sure do have a lot of beauracracy.

 

Who cares.. if Muslim's don't wanna greet people on a certain day, let them. I'm sure Jews don't greet Christians with "Merry Christmas "

 

the problem is it creates hate/segregation towards the 5-10% minority and then when other groups do this, it may cause protest, and maybe violent protests

 

All of the Jews I know do.

 

bla bla bla...CRAP! Do you live in Malaysia to say that? If you just read a news somewhere and don't have any idea on what is happening, stop making stupid claims. The message was supposed to be circulated internally..and it was leaked out, which mean it was sent to media by "muslims" who disagreed by his opinion and "muslims" were writing to media etc, on how they are against his opinion and considered it as a "narrow" minded opinion. Whats a big deal? There is narrow minded person all over this planet? and everyone has the right to give their opinion, so what???

Piece of crap! Listen up, if you want to talk rubbish about a country, talk about your own country, don't talk about country that you don't have much knowledge....Tell me, when did the violent protest happened? Did anyone get killed or injured???

 

So you admit it's true and are upset the info got out. But don't want him to talk about things he doesn't know about.

Damn infidels

 

Internally means for his "staff". Whats a big deal??? I had a boss who hated his own race, he isn't muslim/malay for sure..but I didn't go around and make it big, so what? People have the right to say anything, you don't like muslim for sure, and I didn't I go and tell the whole world that American are racist, because of someone racist like you who gave your opinion?

anyway, if you want to quote me, quote it in full, and stop twisting words.

What I meants is, majority of the Muslims in my country were against his opinion and for your information, we have been celebrating what known as "kongsi raya", celebrating festivals together for years....So, please stop talking crap...

 

I think the first line said it all:

The head of Malaysia's Shariat Department has asked Muslims in the country not to greet Hindus on Diwali.

Rather than focus your reply on condeming such, it was focused on the messenger (ash1). A missed opportunity.

As for the rest of your comment, islam isn't a race. Perhaps you were not aware of that.

 

Do some, research and you will find out the guy wasn't "Malaysia's Shariat Department" I am not sure whether simply missed the fact, or purposely trying to mislead people. He was a head of a law department of an insurance company (Takaful Malaysia).

Anyway, here race and religion are very much related.

 

What head he is, isn't important. Just a distractor from the message.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q="Fauzi+Mustaffar"&btnG=Search

Another missed opportunity.

 

dont hate, instead try to make things better
wow if u get this mad on the net cause i have family in malay and they told me this

imagine in person, ud probably wanna bomb me
..chill man

 

Will.Spencer is the first to reply a thread about muslims, You got a muslim GF Mr. Spencer?

 

Thatz bad , The problem with Most hindus (not all, anything has an exception_ is,
Hindus never spread their religion, They dont have hatredness, they are ignorant and can They were the richest until muslims and britishers came and looted all their wealth.

 

you see, not only me will get angry, but also my Indian friends, I have best friends who are Indian. my mom speak Tamil and we watch Indian movies more than English movies. You name a famous Indian actor/actress we know it, from the late MGR,Sivaji to rajinikanth and now Vijay, we know every single of them. I never shout to the world when in the Annamalai series, they said bad things about Malaysian/Malaysia despite our support to their industry (foods etc...) (You think I don't watch Chiti, Annamalai??), I betcha, we do have SunTV here....We eat Indian foods, Tosai? Its something I eat almost every week...When it comes to religion, I can assure you My dad and brother know the content of Bhagavad Gita better than many Hindus out there who devoted themselves blindly without have a true understanding of their religion....Yet you're making us sound like a country full of racist and religious zealots type of people.. I am not sure what your family member have told you, but it sounds very wrong. Just in case you don't know, the second richest man in Malaysia is an Indian guy, and without goverment support especially the previous Prime Minister, he wouldn't be that rich now...Yet you're saying we are racist?

I don't bomb people nor commit anything violence like that, but if you're here in front of me, Its enough for me to leave my Indian friends to make you lose your face for telling rumours... If Gandhi is still around, he would be crying to see how wrong some people are today...

 

I have a wife who grew up in a Muslim family.

I can't really say that she is an ex-Muslim, because I don't think she ever believed any of that crap.

I am against the Islamists because they are opposed to the one thing which I hold more dear than everything else in life, liberty.

My wife, on the other hand, knows Islam very well. She memorized the Koran and can recit it from memory even now. She went through many years of religious indoctrination.

She misses her family terribly, but she had to escape from them because she was a virtual prisoner in the home where she grew up.

I still remember a phone call between her and he father years ago, before we were married. He wanted her to come home and he told her that she could have the second floor of any house, anywhere in the world. The the second floor? Because she would be a prisoner, unable to ever leave, with guards occupying the first floor. The bizarre thing is that he thought that this was a reasonable offer. What kind of man would want that future for his child? That's what Islam does to a persons mind.

 

I am sorry for saying that & bringing up bad old memories for you...

I have a few friends who are muslims and we always avoid talking about religions and all the other crap...But there are times when such topics arise and friends (muslim) tell me that things said about Islam are untrue...I wont give any specific example but they always tell me that nothing of such sort is written in the Koran....we just cut it there and change the topic.

IMO you should try to be a better human being first before following your religion with 100% honesty. I would never ever do something which I feel is wrong even if my religion asks me to do it.

 

i dont think its true
there is respect for every festival, and greetings are part of celebrations, so its good to make wishes to fellow human, u aint doin a sin wishing some one for a festival season.

 

the problem with islam is that their share of the bad apples is significantly, significantly larger than that of the other religions. as such, they get a bad name although i believe most of the liberal muslims are very good people.

 

ur friends cant say whats in and whats not in the koran....everyone interprets it differently...thats their perspective, even ur friends CANNOT DENY that many groups out there (fundamentalist) view certain lines from the koran in a context....that doesnt mean its a wrong/right context..

theres experts on both sides that would argue..and thats why there is fighting...because its up to the beleiver..

same thing goes in buddhism , christianity, but so far no one has taken a line out of context to blow something up