The conservative Islamic Society in Malaysia

The Malaysian Society and Sexuality are two things that obviously don't get quite along with each other. As I was told the open exchange of caress should be avoided (don't even think about kissing) and in certain Taxis you can see stickers, which prohibit kissing. Malaysia is an Islamic country, the dealing with sexuality is very conservative there. I should get informed what are the exact religious laws, that restrict the people here, but everything reminds me a little to some strict catholic community several years in Germany. Christianity has it's problem with an open dealing of sexuality, too: The pope still does not want support birth control, and some conservative Christians in America (like George W.) think that it is better to tell their children nothing about sex and tell them to wait until they got married.
But the global values have already changed. If you watch movies/videos on MTV, or listen to the lyrics of pop songs, you'll see that the global society already has changed, and many people deal with sexuality really open. This is the struggle Malaysia got itself in - it wants global competitiveness but I got the feeling that this has a great influence on the society, too. This is the really interesting thing you can see in the Malaysian Blogging-scene people are talking about sensitive topics. I found this article about abortion surfing the blogger portal Petaling street today. This really brought me to some thinking..

..thinking. Didn't manage it to get my point clear on that topic. I don't disrespect values people believing in a religion! But I think in a globalized world with people of different religions and cultures working together a great openess is needed. If you want your values respected, you need to respect values of other peoples, too - even if they are not according to your views. And there I see the problem right now, right here in Malaysia.

This entry was posted by Jürgen Hösch on Tuesday, June 21. 2005 at 09:10. and is filed under LS Malaysia. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own blog.

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mamatd says:
#1 2005-06-21 12:43
You know what else could you do while thinking?

Contemplate the fact that religious requirement do not change due to the needs of the society, e.g. in Islam, the need of human-being to co-habitat do not mean that sex-out-of-marriage is now acceptable. It is still a sin.

The acceptance of society to the needs of current individuals (e.g. homosexuality, extra-marital sex, doing drugs, etc. )are the destroyer of all human dignity.

Each and every individual should frown upon all prohibitions of religion. There is a real reason for them.

Fundamental is just a term coined by non-believers. There's no such thing as fundamentalist or liberalist in religion. It's either you subscribe to the religion or not. No personal intepretation of specific instructions.

Islamic,
mamatd

Jürgen Hösch says:
#1.1 2005-06-22 08:21
Now we are getting into some real discussion here. Why would you deny someone his "individual beliefs"? Beeing a protestant Christian I my religion and my society does not condemn ex-marital sex. Does this belief make me a bad person now for you?

rational thinker says:
#2 2005-06-21 14:56
It is amazing how zealous people like to impose their values and culture and belief onto others.

I say, each of us is entitled to our own view points, and should not impose it on others. It might be necessary to have some sort of generally socially acceptable level norm, but i would say, some level of public display of affection are acceptable in many parts of malaysia.

Rex Imperator says:
#3 2005-06-23 02:25
Please do explain to me, what do you mean by globalised norms or acceptable values? A person from the West may assume their openess, individualism and liberty is the globalised norms. However a person from other part of the world may assume their conservative, collectivism and less liberal way of life is the globalised norms. Therefore it is very difficult to securely pin down a so called Globalised Norm of Living. Long story short, i think this phrase sums it all "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"

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