HOBART, Australia: Earlier this month, a retired Malaysian civil servant was charged with voluntarily causing hurt after allegedly slapping a non-Muslim man who was eating at a shopping mall during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Videos of the incident quickly went viral, reigniting public discussion around tolerance, multicultural coexistence and religious sensitivities in Malaysia.
It was the latest in a series of isolated incidents that have turned into national controversies.
In the past year alone, two incidents involving the convenience store chain KK Super Mart have sparked intense public backlash.
In the first, a handful of socks bearing the word “Allah” were found to be sold at several KK Super Mart outlets last year, prompting boycott calls, three petrol bomb attacks on its stores and legal action against its owners. An investigation revealed that the socks were part of a much larger shipment from China, with KK Super Mart maintaining that it did not commission the items with the offending design.
In the second, a KK Super Mart outlet at Universiti Malaya was accused in January of selling ham and cheese sandwiches labelled as halal to students. After photos of the sandwiches were posted online, the store was vandalised with red paint. Investigations later confirmed that the “ham” was chicken ham, and not pork, and that the halal labelling was done by its supplier.
Both incidents were amplified by political figures, most notably Muhamad Akmal Saleh, youth chief of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Mr Akmal has maintained that his actions reflect a commitment to “defending” Islam and Malays. Critics argue he was stoking divisions and playing the issues up for political gain.
