While festivities like Oktobefest may be a little sensitive with a lot of debate usually coming up because of it, for many of us who are pretty much chill, we don’t think too much about it TBH!
In a post that Tun M had written back in 2017 which is currently recirculating, our much-respected PM stated the reasons why he is not against beer festivals/Oktoberfest for people who are not of the Islam religion.
He wrote,
1. I was told many are angry at me for not showing my support towards the ban of the beer festival, Oktober Fest for the non-Muslims.
2. For me, if it is legal for non-Muslims to drink alcohol or beer and they want to drink beer until they pass out, that is their problem. What’s important is that they don’t create problems for other people, or drive under the influence of alcohol.
3. What makes me the saddest is the abuse of drugs by Muslims where it has caused the death of 23 religious school students when they burnt the boarding school down.
4. It looks like as if the Muslims just accepted the students’ deaths as just a regular incident. Yes, there are those who think that this is all destiny, which is why they simply accept it. Just like a religious teacher mentioned, “Those who pass away after attending religious classes will wait for their father and mother at the entrance of heaven”.
5. However, for me, the question that arises is: Why are there Muslims / Malays being involved in drugs? Why do we not hear about the Chinese or Indians being involved in drugs? Is this also destiny? Is there nothing we can do to ensure Muslims / Malays say no to drugs?
Source: nwemail
6. In the Al Quran, Allah SWT said that Allah will not fix the bad habits of humans. Instead, the person themselves should try to fix it first.
7. Drug addiction is caused by the lack of control parents have over their children these days. The responsibility of sowing the habit to refuse drugs should actually be on the shoulders of religious teachers in school.
8. However, in school, besides educating students with the respective religious teachings for pahala (reward), there is not enough pressure towards the teachings of moral character; such as sin and reward, right and wrong, and the Islamic lifestyle. Due to this, the youths are easily influenced by bad habits, including the use of drugs.
9. If the youths have a good practice and are taught self-control to prevent bad habits (amal ma’aruf nahi mungkar) as part of the Islamic teaching, perhaps these prohibited behaviours would decrease. But as far as I know, there is no such systematic exercise nor teaching of this field in schools.
Source: Malay Mail Online
10. Knowledge is useless if it is not controlled by good culture. I am embarrassed whenever I read reports about the wrongdoings by Muslims, especially the youths. I think that Muslims need to pay more attention to this issue, instead of simply banning non-Muslims from drinking beer.
11. This is my opinion. If you want to slam me or get angry at me for not smashing beer bottles in front of the MB’s office, so be it.
12. Oktober Fest, the beer festival that takes place in the month of October is a traditional culture of the Germans.
13. Germany accepts 1 million Syrian refugees. However, what the Germans get in return for hosting them is getting banned from drinking beer during their Oktober Fest tradition.
14. Malay people often say ‘mind your own business’. Let’s make sure that we don’t drink beer and don’t take drugs. That is better than smashing bottles of beer.
Many netizens who read his post, including Muslims themselves, agreed with Tun M’s statement. They also chimed together, expressing their apologies for other close-minded counterparts.
In any way, we’re all 1Malaysia, where people of different races thrive! So let’s always remember and practise that, no matter the circumstance.
Also read: Annual ‘Better Beer Festival’ in Publika Officially Gets 2017 Event Banned by DBKL
