God's creatures gone missing in Malaysia

FMT - Pig, dog missing from CNY zodiac T-shirt sold at popular hypermart (extracts):

PETALING JAYA: There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, but two of them are conspicously missing from a T-shirt sold at a major hypermarket chain, drawing reactions from Malaysians online.

The T-shirt has the image of all the animals except the pig and dog, which are instead replaced with Chinese characters. [...]

While it is not immediately clear why the two creatures are not pictured, authorities have in the past banned or restricted materials depicting the dog and pig, animals which Malaysia’s Shafi’i Muslims consider as unclean.

In 1995, Malaysia banned the comedy film “Babe” for portraying the main character of a pig, although a DVD release was approved years later.

In 2016, the character of a pig was removed from promotional posters for Hong Kong blockbuster film, “The Monkey King 2”.

Two years earlier, activist Syed Azmi Alhabshi drew the ire of Islamic authorities for organising an event giving Muslims the opportunity to touch the dog, as well as how to cleanse themselves after that.

Syed Azmi Alhabshi

he received death threats, online abuse by religious conservatives

A guideline by the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim), which oversees the halal industry, also prohibits the use of the name “dog”, forcing popular products such as A&W’s famed Coney Dog to be renamed.

And of course there was also Aunt Annie's Pretzel Cats.

if it meows, that means it's very fresh 

Early last year, June Wong, a regular columnist at the Star Online, wrote that those in marketing are cautious of designing company’s 2018 Chinese New Year ang pow packet which in the past incorporated the incoming animal-of-the-Chinese-lunar-solar-year into the company's design, for example, like the horse, goat, monkey, rooster, etc.

The incoming Chinese new Year is also the Year of of the Earth Dog, where the animal is No 11th in the Chinese pantheon of 12 while the element is Earth. Of the 12 animals in the Chinese astrological calendar, the dog is the MOST loyal.

But June was told there has been unofficial word by many companies not to feature the dog for the Chinese new Year which starts on 16 February 2018.

Why?

In Malaysia, thanks to someone's Dasar Penerapan Nilai-Nilai Islam in 1985, which was said to cause deep divisions between the different races and even within the Muslim community, our inculcated Islamic "values" hold dogs as 'unclean' creatures.

That same bloke had also made the 929 & 617 Declarations in 2001 (929) and 2002 (617) which arbitrarily turned Malaysia overnight into a 'fundamentalist Muslim nation'. Lim Kit Siang raved and rant about those unauthorised declarations but apparently orang tua Ah Pek 'ni mudah lupa juga.

Thus Megatron accentuated Islamic values but of the sort he didn't or perhaps he did anticipate, where Islamic authorities indoctrinated Malaysian Muslims to abhor so-called 'unclean' creatures like the loyal dog instead of 'unclean' creatures like corruption, incest, lying, terrorism (including intimidation), misuse of god's name, etc.

June Wong provided an example of the effect of such indoctrination:

Local councils have ... made it harder for house-owners to keep dogs, especially in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods. My niece and her husband did all they could to meet the requirements and ensured their Pomeranian did not bother their neighbours when they moved in. But the pressure, at first subtle and finally openly hostile, forced them to give their beloved pet away.

Would those hostile un-neighbouring 'pressure' be considered as a form of 'unclean' creature under god's instructions?

MM Online (05 July 2017) reported that:

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has criticised a Malay woman over a video of her and her pet dog “Bubu”, calling her actions an affront to Islam.

Jakim director-general Tan Sri Othman Mustapha said Muslims owning dogs and their needless contact with canines were “highly disturbing” as both were against Islamic teachings.

“Jakim deeply regrets her intentional act of touching dogs without any concrete reasons, which is prohibited in Islam.

“We find her actions to be highly disturbing to Muslims here as they contravene our culture and the tenets of our school of jurisprudence.”

But Islamic experts came out to decry Othman Mustapha's outrageous 'blasphemy' as he had no authority to decide what would be 'sin'.

Syahredzan Johan 

Lawyer Syahredzan Johan wrote, “Jakim is not a state religious body, so its director-general does not have the status of a mufti,” thus could NOT issue any fatwa or to make decisions on any Islamic rules, except in relation to issuing halal certification.

He added, “It has no jurisdiction to advise or to warn anyone regarding the rules of raising pet dogs”, saying Jakim “should not interfere” in the jurisdiction of the “mufti” (Muslim clerics) and religious councils.

Activist lawyer Siti Kasim labelled Jakim as an “insult to Islam”.

Siti 

Shouldn't Othman Mustapha be flogged i.a.w Hadi Awang's desired hudud punishment for his blasphemy? I strongly recommend it, wakakaka, but to think taxpayers, including and especially non-Muslims, fund Jakim to the tune of RM1 Billion per annum - to teach Muslims to detest dogs!

HM Sultan Johor would also like to know why Jakim needs an annual budget of RM1 Billion? 

But June Wong worried about the Muslims' indoctrinated detestation for dogs, so much so that she fears such revulsion and the Chinese effort to accommodate their abhorrence of canines may affect Chinese celebrations of the 2018 (16 Feb) new lunar-solar year.

And what next in 2019? Yes, the Year of the Earth Pig.

Now, we see that worry come to fruition on a T-shirt, with two animals missing from the Chinese pantheon. I wonder why Allah swt told Noah (pbuh) to take pigs and dogs on board his Ark if they were/are so 'unclean'?

To avoid that, I recommend the dog be substituted with a cat, and the pig with an unta (camel). Malaysia Boleh!