Oh dear, here comes another case of racial intolerance in racially harmonious Singapore.
The first shots were fired three days ago by Nicole L when she launched a petition on Change.org calling for the halt of all Korban rites that happen annually on Hari Raya Haji, an important observance for Muslims for the Aidil Adha celebrations.
The ritual is carried out as a symbolic remembrance of Prophet Ibrahim in his unwavering faith in God. Livestock (upheld to the high standards of the Agri-food and Authority Singapore) such as sheep and cows are imported from overseas and slaughtered during the celebrations, with the meat given out to the needy.
But Nicole L has a big problem with the tradition:
“…the act of slaughtering the animals in the Mosques in view of children, and letting donors (whom bought the sheep to donate to their respective Mosques) slit the throats of the sheep (who might be inexperienced and thus needed a few times to do it right) is cruelty in itself.”
Though her allegations aren’t necessarily true, her crusade did manage to stir up some concern and support (1,392 signatures in total) among non-muslims, who believe wholeheartedly about the supposed cruelty to animals just for the festival. This despite the fact that the Halal way of slaughtering animals have always prohibited prolonged suffering or cruelty.
Understandably, the Muslim community got pissed that someone’s actually petitioning against an important hallmark of Hari Raya Haji. One even got so pissed that he overreacted by way of launching a petition on Change.org calling for a ban on Hungry Ghost Festival. Insert facepalm here.
Shahdinar Selamat’s petition was obviously something done out of angry haste, judging from the wall of unedited text he included in the description box. Though it’s an important month in the lunar calendar, he want to abolish the practice of ritualistic food offerings, incense and joss paper burnings and other rites that pays respect to the deceased.
Among the reason he listed include air pollution, littering issues and pest prevalence during the Seventh Month. “I can tolerate and so does the malay community, but don’t take our generosity as weakness, we can tolerate nonsense but not to our religion,” he asserts.
Somebody slap some sense into these two already, or at least make these to work out their issues in a dinner date.
Photo: Joan Campderrós-i-Canas; benoxi via Flickr; change.org
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