YOURSAY 'The resort manager is a Muslim and he didn't mean any ill intention by allowing non-Muslims to use the surau.'

'Buddhists meditating in surau have insulted Islam'

Puzzled: I remember as an undergraduate student in the Midwest of the United States, our fellow Muslims and I used to congregate and do our weekly Friday prayers in the basement of a local church. When I moved to another state for my graduate studies, the same thing happened.

Now, if those Christians were gracious enough to allow us Muslims to use their church to practice our religion, I am perplexed as to the reasons why Muslims in Malaysia quoted in this article demonstrated a sheer lack such compassion and graciousness to allow the followers of other religion to practice their religion?

What is there to lose? Why are Muslim Malaysians so utterly extra-sensitive? I wish they grow up a little and get out of their coconut shells.

Lim Kuan Keat: Didn't the Prophet Muhammad invite Najran Christians to pray at a mosque in AD631? Has Johor Islamic Affairs Council (MAIJ) forgotten about this inconvenient historical record?

Ferdtan: These Buddhists who meditated in the Johor surau, if needed to be punished, it is for no other reasons but for their stupidity. We all know the sensitivity of the Umno government, with the some religious bigots running amok with every flimsy excuses imaginable to ‘defend' their religion.

And with the kind of politics they play, why such ignorant Buddhists still play to their hand? Don't they know the kind of politics Umno play, especially when the Umno party election is so close by?

They may feel their act of meditation in a surau is innocent but why ask for trouble when the ruling government and its institutions never seem to welcome the different religions to fraternise with Islam?

We don't care about what they do - right or wrong, it is debatable - but with their stupidity, they may bring problems to other religious followers.

Cantabrigian: This has nothing to do with religion or whatnot. This hullabaloo is the precursor to what's coming up for the Umno General Assembly cum election - the more ultra-Malay you are or if you could be look more Islamic than Islam itself, the higher your chance to get voted in Umno leadership.

Chinese Malaysians, get ready to be microscopically targeted for any mistake or error because it's open season now.

My4Hope: Let's be clear:

1) The video shows possibly a Tibetan Buddhism sect and they are from Singapore, therefore this group may not be as sensitive as Malaysians on religious taboos here.

2) It was a kind gesture of the resort manager to offer an alternative site for their meditation, and he is definitely not aware of such could be made an issue, especially out of something done in good faith.

3) We are not aware when was the video taken. Therefore, don't fall into the trap for the extremists to link such to Chinese/Buddhist Malaysians.

Anonymous #07910507: Islam is bitterly against any idol presence in whatever form. I think the Muslims were enraged for their use of idol in the surau, not because of their using the surau for mediation.

Why can't they get a better place for their mediation. This is courting trouble for no good reason. What a pity, people are so insensitive to the feelings of Muslims.

Muslims too have right to hold their own opinion about their religion. Should the Muslims always take what others think their Islam should be?

Fair Play: The resort manager is a Muslim and he didn't mean any ill intention by allowing non-Muslims to use the surau. So the relevant religious authority cannot allege that non-Muslims are bent on insulting them.

Anon: "My intention was just to show that Islam was a universal and tolerant religion," said the resort manager. So now Umno has proved you wrong.

Umno's version of Islam is extremely sensitive, intolerant and arrogant. They can insult other religions or races anyway they like, but if you "offend" them the slightest, they will declare war and send out their Perkasa dogs after you.

P Lim: On a bitterly cold and snowing afternoon in Aberdeen, the doors of St John's Episcopal Church are open to hundreds of Muslim worshippers, arriving for daily prayers.

Sunflower11: Jail the Singaporeans and create diplomacy furore across the Causeway. Let the whole world report the news if this is how these idiots wish to further bring down the country's reputation.

Anonymous #22212420: Will they feel insulted if non-halal tax money generated from non-halal activities be channeled to build their schools, roads, public facilities?

Chee Hoe Siew: They might as well say that anyone who is not a Muslim insults Islam when they enter the country.

Eddie 50: 1. Alvivi's bak kut teh; 2. Shower room canteen; 3. The dog trainer; 4. Pig-head ketupat ... and now this. I hope this is the last.

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