Banning poco-poco dance

In the effort of protecting Muslims in Malaysia from any non-Islamic elements, other religions are not allowed to publicly share information or propagate teachings of their own faith to Muslims, such as passing around flyers to them, invite them to religious events, among others.

But like I say, I don't believe that this kind of protection from the government is a good thing. An individual may boldly say that he is absolutely not interested in any religious activities other than for his own faith, or even claim to be annoyed by such invitation no matter how well intended these invitations are. That should be the liberty at individual level. In this way, the government not only is allowing freedom of speech for those  mentioned above, it is also empowering the rights of others who would like to know more about other religion to feel free to attend events that increase one's understanding about other religions, even if conversion is not necessarily in the picture. The culture of never stop learning should also include religious matter. In fact, challenges from people of other faiths is the most effective way to encourage one to learn more about his own faith in order to defend it, if he wishes. In this way, he is growing stronger in his own faith and this is essentially the purpose of the protection at the first place.

Having said that, I'd like to clarify that of course I do come across some Muslims who are strong in their own faith even with the protection from the government in place. But many are not. The same goes to Christians as well. There were times I only want to be a Sunday Christian. I felt the comfort of being at church on Sundays, and the comfort of not being challenged about my faith on the rest of the week. Until one day some friends asked me about my faith or threw me statement such as "If you don't sin, Jesus died for nothing!", I began to realise religion is more that just being comfortable and showing up for Sunday services. I do thank God for the peaceful times. But I should also take the initiative to come back to God for answers when challenges arise, and not giving excuses for my own shaky faith in Him. And I am not the only Christians who is guilty of giving excuses at times, too. There are much to improve on as His followers, maybe we can start with facing  the challenges positively.

Even, people (or at least, the leaders) of 1Malaysia should be made compulsory to be educated of faiths widely professed by the majority in this country before they want to ban certain activities from their fellow countrymen due to the "foreign" elements in those activities. Even if one is not interested to ban any religious activity, these leaders should be the role model and take the initiative to understand his community whom he is representing. Because the higher you go as a leader, there are even more reasons for you to bow down and wash the feet for (serve), be humble and be respectful to the people you lead and have influence on.

What is the result of over-protection? Some of our leaders don't even know what is or isn't an element of a particular religion, and worse, don't even care to hide the fact that they don't know about it. Mistaken Santa Clause and poco-poco dance to be of Christianity only brings shame to leaders who made those statement. And who elected those leaders of our nations? We, the citizens, do. At the end, we bear the most shame for the laughable statement they made on media. And yes, I grew tired of the times these leaders simply ban something and say because they are linked to Christianity without proper research.

It is these politicians who are playing the racial/ religious cards. Our country is better off without them.