'Chua has no right to belittle (anyone) and act in a condescending manner towards other people's culture and religious practices.'

Chua must apologise, say Muslim lawyers NGO

Shashi: I fully support and empathise with Muslim Lawyers Association president Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar's call for an apology from MCA chief Dr Chua Soi Lek.

Chua has no right to belittle anyone and act in a condescending manner towards other people's culture and religious practices. He should issue an unqualified public apology.

PAS candidate Normala Sudirman's worth as a representative is not decided by what she wears nor her religious beliefs. For Muslims and many Asian women, it is culturally inappropriate to have physical contact with males.

Gandhi, when he was a student in England, explained his vegetarian diet with this remark: "We have to respect those beliefs just as we want others to respect our beliefs."

Just as I understand the hurt by Muslims over this issue, I hope others too can understand why Indians are hurt over the condescending and derogative and superficial way that the novel ‘Interlok' has described the Indian caste system. Hindus too, being human, have feelings.

When the DAP representative Teo Nie Ching was invited to a mosque to give a speech, her attire was made into a big issue. A certain BM-language daily really condemned her for a lengthy period. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also condemned her roundly. Later she got into trouble again for supposedly wearing sports attire which was deemed inappropriate during aerobics with some mosque-goers. Again, Abdullah and the national daily condemned her.

Here Chua is wilfully belittling a respected Malay/Muslim custom with impunity and only Zainul Rijal raises the matter, and that, too, after so many days. Where is Abdullah and the national daily?

Chua, campaign all you want but don't touch on people's cultural and religious practises. Normala is a married Malay/Muslim woman, and we have to respect her cultural beliefs. She must be judged by her performance as a people's representative if she wins, not by her attire or religious/cultural beliefs. Chua should apologise.

Anonymous_3ec6: Hello Utusan Malaysia , CSL (Chua Soi Lek) is bashing Islamic etiquette and you are keeping quiet?

Ida Bakar: Please don't make this a religious issue. Some Muslim women are quite happy to shake hands with non- mahram males and females; many in the corporate sector do this during introductions and sealing of deals. Chua Soi Lek is being pathetic and trying to throw his MCA weight around. The best way to deal with bullies like CSL is to ignore him.

Abahpenang: If she shakes hand with a male, she is condemned, and if she shakes hands with females only, she too will be criticised. In Islam, she is forbidden to shake hands with a male but when she wears gloves, she again is condemned.

Malaysian First, Malaysian Always: I am a Chinese Malaysian. I would rather give my vote to someone who doesn't shake my hand than to someone who gives me a crocodile smile and shakes my hand because he wants my vote, and then uses taxpayers' money for dubious purposes after the election.

Anonymous_3e4b: I think Normala from PAS can be another MB, like Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin. She looks very sincere and honest. We need this type of character to wipe out corruption so Malaysians will always enjoy the fruits of the country.

Look at Kuwait: All Kuwaitis get bonus in thousands of US dollars and free food up to 2012. They also pay no taxes. We Malaysians should be enjoying the returns from Petronas. Alas, it is not to be because Petronas money is being gobbled up by Umno. If not, why can't Petronas accounts be revealed to all Malaysians?

Pak Tua: By letting a non-Muslim without any morality like the Labis ‘porn actor' Chua Soi Lek transgress on the practices of Muslims, Umno is equally to blame. This is the best time to educate non-Muslims as to the dos and don'ts as practised by true Muslims once and for all.

Or are Umno Muslims are so liberal now that we don't have to practise the Muslim ways anymore?

BN eyes fixed on Normala's hands

ACR: Hindus and Buddhist greet everyone with namaste irrespective of gender (including males-to-male, female-to-female) with both palms clasped together in front of the chest. Essentially it means 'I am saluting/greeting the divinity in you which is also within me'.

Muslims do not shake hands with the opposite sex in absence of a family relationship. The context is different, but we should respect all beliefs alike. To use this as an excuse to scare non-Muslims about Normala is not going to work in Tenang. We are all Malaysians and can spot a stinking racial/religious melodrama miles away.

Not Confused: Hopefully, the Chinese voters in Tenang will see through the extremely shallow and condescending comments about Normala not shaking hands (without gloves).

As many have pointed out, it is common practice by females the world over when shaking hands - just look at Princess Diana and the British queen. In the case of Normala, it doesn't signify rudeness, and the idiots in BN know it.

Don't Leave Name: The most manipulative self-centred ‘friendly' idiots in BN has gone below human dignity to criticise a female for not shaking hands. For the information of Chua Soi Lek, the Chinese traditionally did not shake hands (read your 5,000-year-old Chinese history). Shaking hands is a Western culture.

Normala has her own way of greeting others. Please focus on the real issues of Malaysia and Malaysians. After 53 years of Independence, we are lagging behind in many areas. I am a Chinese, but MCA does not represent me.

Dex: I have come across women (from India) who don't shake hands but use a simple namaste . What's wrong with that? Come on, BN, get real.

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: What is the big deal about the handshake? Is this all that the MCA can talk about. It has truely become nothing but a lapdog of Umno together with the MIC, Gerakan and the PPP.

As for the handshake, even I as a professional do not offer my hand to any Muslim woman unless she does first. I respect their religion and culture. What is so offensive about that? Even in India, women especially married ones do not shake hands with men except perhaps in the big cities and depending on their level of education. In the rural areas, it is a no-no.

Singa Pura Pura: The allusion to Normala's disinclination to touch another man as ‘anti-people' is either misconceived rhetoric or fraudulent misinformation. Again, these Umno politicians are misusing Islam like a crucifix to terrorise the Chinese in Malaysia. Umno is so ever prepared to employ a self-confessed ‘zina -ist' (adulterer) as its chief spokesman in delivering anti-Islamic invectives.

Prima facie, Puan Normala has done heaps better than politicians who go about touching other people at places whom they have neither the legal nor the moral right to touch.

Today in Tenang, one cannot even begin to imagine how cruel and savage Umno and the MCA have been to women and mothers. This political revilement of women, in particular the kaum muslimat , must stop.

Michael Ng 34f2: If she were a BN Muslim candidate and refuses to shake hands and Pakatan play up the issue, they would be accused of insulting Islamic values and thus insulting the Agong. See how well Perkasa or BN can spin stories?

Pemerhati: There is nothing wrong if Normala does not shake the hands of men, who are not her close relations because that is what her religion requires her to do. All religions and cultures have their unique practices and there are some people who follow their religious and cultural practices strictly, while others do not.

Muslims in Umno or any other party, who go around shaking hands of the opposite sex, who are not their close relations, are not following their religion strictly. Hence from the Islamic point of view, if anyone has to be criticised, it is these Muslims who go around shaking hands of the opposite sex indiscriminately and certainly not Normala.

Carboncopy: PM Najib Razak said that the Tenang by-election is bigger than Teoh Beng Hock. Obviously to Najib and subservient MCA, Normala's hands are bigger than Beng Hock.

Coming from a party that openly endorses an adulterer whose performance was caught on tape, this is beyond bankrupt.

I hope Tenang voters will show to BN that they have class and reject these lower life forms in the cesspool of BN's component parties.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paid subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .