“Both KK Mart and the vendor have apologised. What else do you expect them to do?”

- Mydin hypermarket boss and president of the Bumiputera Retailers Organisation, Ameer Ali Mydin

COMMENT | When Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh told his friends at KK Mart to find another business, you have to ask yourself why doesn’t he care about “the livelihood of workers - most of whom are Malay Muslims” that hypermarket boss head Ameer Ali Mydin thinks would be in jeopardy if Akmal continues with his reckless religious agenda.

You have to ask yourself why Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan would write a piece warning people not to be sympathetic to KK Mart and its vendor by describing the former’s business practices as “questionable”.

“Business practices” imply a history of behaviour and so far neither Akmal nor his supporters can point to anything that KK Mart has done which would invite such political or religious opprobrium.

Hasan said it was yet to be determined if this act was done maliciously or in ignorance. Indeed, we have to ask ourselves why KK Mart or its vendor would subject itself to such acts as doxxing, police investigations, and online harassment just to sell garments with the word Allah on them.

We have to ask ourselves why a business which caters to a large Muslim clientele would risk their bottom line selling garments which would cause offence...