I criticize PAS Ulama Council’s remark which called for shutting down Timah liquor manufacturing company. I call upon all Malaysians to stop being oversensitive to different cultures and recognize that Malaysia is a multicultural society.
As for PAS’s claim that the liquor company has to be closed to avoid the emergence of more liquor companies, Malaysian law has already prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages to Muslims. Therefore, calling for shutting down liquor companies has nothing to do with defending the Muslim faith. Instead, it shows that PAS is actually aiming at conducting moral policing on the lives of non-Muslims.
The extreme views of the PAS cannot represent the non-Muslim communities in our country. More importantly, they do not have the right to deprive non-Muslims of the right to choose our lifestyles. As such, they must stop stoking social tensions and instead, focus on governance and economic recovery.
Some individuals were oversensitive and purposely made a mountain out of a molehill by comparing “Timah” with “Fatimah”. Also, they jumped to conclusions and claimed that the man on the bottle who wore a hat and a beard is a Muslim.
Timah is obviously the Malay word for tin. The critics dared not be frank about their sole reason for opposing the use of Timah—they could not accept that a non-Halal product uses a Malay word. However, such a reason is totally unacceptable. Also, regardless of whether the man on the bottle looks like a Muslim male, we have to understand that not all men who wear hats and beards are Muslims by default. In fact, we can easily find many Western philosophers with similar looks on the internet. Will the hypersensitive groups also oppose anyone from using the photos of Western philosophers just to avoid misleading the Muslims?
As for some critics who accused the liquor company of “offending Muslims” by launching its product when Prophet Muhammad’s birthday is around the corner, if they would also accuse all non-Muslims who drink alcohol at home or in a bar of “offending Muslims”.
The critics are certainly trying very hard to look for hundreds of reasons to incite hatred. Nonetheless, the controversies brought up by them do not have any valid legal basis and are related to the rights of non-Muslims. Therefore, it is crystal clear the topic is a non-issue played up by some ill-intentioned and malicious individuals with the only purpose of stoking racial tensions.
I urge Ismail Sabri and his Cabinet to quell the unnecessary controversy and to ensure that the right to life enjoyed by non-Muslims will not be trampled on by some extreme fundamentalists.