Bon Odori (not to be mistaken with Bon Jovi) is a festival that has been celebrated in Japan for centuries. Obon or just Bon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honour the spirits of one’s ancestors. Odori means lively dance. Hence, Bon Odori is a family reunion where people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors’ graves – with dances thrown into it.
In Japan, the dance – lasting for three days – is usually performed during the summer Obon season. Recognized as a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, the dance traces its origins back more than 700 years to a harvest festival initiated around the late 1280s. Some say the origin of Bon Odori goes back to the Heian period (794 to 1185).
Regardless of when the Bon Odori started, it existed before Parameswara founded Melaka. In Malaysia, the festival dates as far back as 1977 to promote and strengthen cultural ties between the country and Japan by showcasing Japanese food, drinks, art, and dance. From a small affair for Japanese expatriates, the annual event has since attracted about 35,000 participants.
The Japanese Bon Festival actually originated from the Ghost Festival in China, which is being celebrated by Malaysian Chinese on the 15th night of the seventh month (August 12, 2022). On this day it is believed that the “Gates of Hell” are opened and that the dead return to visit their living relatives. Both festivals are part of the Buddhist-Confusion custom to honour and remember ancestors.
However, as speculation of the 15th General Election grows louder, PAS Islamist party thought it could play its favourite religion card to fish for votes. On June 6, Idris Ahmad, Religious Affairs Minister advised Muslims not to participate in the upcoming festival as it contains elements of other religions – based on a study conducted by JAKIM (Malaysian Islamic Development Department).
Treating Malaysian Muslims as if they are so ignorant they can’t differentiate tampon and french fries, Idris insisted the Bon Odori festival could confuse the Muslims. PAS young women’s wing – Ameerah Malaysia – has gone to the extent of banning the dance altogether, saying it is “haram” or forbidden for Muslims to participate in a religious festival that honors the spirit of the departed.
The next day, Penang mufti Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor told Muslims not to participate the Bon Odori festival for fear it could lead to “syirik” (polytheism). He said – “Since the festival is linked to remembering the souls or spirits of ancestors, it is feared that it could lead to polytheism. Remembering the souls of the ancestors by dancing, worshipping their spirits and others is not encouraged in Islam”.
After cancelled for the past two years due to Covid-19 pandemic, the Bon Odori festival will be held at the Shah Alam Sports Complex in Selangor on July 16 this year. In Penang, where the festival had been held in for the last 10 years, the state tourism and creative economy committee said the state government did not plan to cancel the event scheduled for July 30.
Stunningly, the Sultan of Selangor issued an order today (June 8) to the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) not obstruct “anyone” from attending the festival. Not only Sultan Sharafuddin decreed the religious department to hand off Bon Odori, the monarch has also expressed his displeasure over the dubious study done by JAKIM to ban the Japanese traditional festival.
After being summoned to the Palace, JAIS director Mohd Shahzihan Ahmad was told that the Sultan disagreed with the religious department’s decision. With tail between legs, Mohd Shahzihan said – “His Majesty is of the opinion that there are many cultures that have links with religion, but it is not necessarily that the religion is present in the culture”.
The Malaysia Islamic religious department might be too stupid to get the message, but the Selangor Sultan was basically mocking them – “You can take the PAS-Malay out of the kampong (village), but you can’t take the kampong out of the PAS-Malay”. But the Malay Sultan was not done with the radical, extremist and narrow-minded PAS leaders, who often act as if they are the messenger of God.
The religious department was shocked when Sultan Sharafuddin ordered officers from JAIS and the Shah Alam City Council to attend Bon Odori to see with their own eyes what actually happens during the dance festival. Apparently, the monarch himself has in the past attended the annual festival and did not find anything that could confuse, let alone corrupt the faith of Muslims.
It’s basic common sense that if the Bon Odori is such a threat to the faith of local Muslims, a sizable of them would have left their religion over the last 45 years since the introduction of the festival in the country. The fact that not a single Muslim has been influenced to join the Bon Odori sect proves it is nothing but a harmless festival for everyone to have fun.
Now that the Sultan of Selangor has decreed that Bon Odori is as harmless as a baby, will JAKIM as the federal government agency that administers Islamic affairs in Malaysia dare to go against the state monarch? If Religious Affairs Minister Idris Ahmad keeps quiet, it will not only undermine his Islamic credential, but also proves that PAS leaders are a bunch of fake holy men.
Do not Muslims in the country flock to visit their ancestors’ graves during Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Eid Al-Fitr) festival to offer prayers and clean the area? Isn’t that also an event that honours the spirit of the departed, one way or another? Are playing firecrackers or the act of giving “duit raya” (money) in a sealed green envelopes part of Islamic teachings to begin with?
The royal decree is not only a slap in the face of the corrupt and extremist JAKIM and PAS Islamic party, but also Prime Minister Ismail Sabri. The turtle-egg man, who returned from a six-day trip to Japan last month, celebrated his maiden visit to the Land of the Rising Sun as having created new opportunities in all sectors to bring immense benefit to the country and its people.
Heck, the prime minister has even trumpeted that his policy to empower Malaysia’s Look East Policy will promote the “Keluarga Malaysia” concept, so much so that over 1,000 Malaysians will be sent to gain work experience in Japan. Unless Sabri plans to send non-Muslims, the government’s anti-Bon Odori festival means the PM is guilty for exposing Muslims to the Japanese culture.
In the past, Sultan Sharafuddin of Selangor rarely expresses his opinions or disagreements over religious matter being administered by JAIS or JAKIM. For him to do so now means the country is on the wrong track that could cause extremism as well as economic destruction. The World Bank has warned that most countries are headed for a recession – even the possibility of the return of 1970s “stagflation”.
Not only the World Bank has slashed its global economic growth forecast by nearly a third to 2.9% for 2022, the situation could turn for the worse. World Bank President David Malpass said global growth could fall to 2.1% in 2022 and 1.5% in 2023, driving per capita growth close to zero. Does JAKIM or PAS Islamic party know what does stagflation mean?
It was already bad that foreign investors are fleeing the country like a plague due to political instability and undesirable investment climate. The last thing PM Ismail and Malaysia want to see are Japanese companies like Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co Ltd, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsubishi Power and others stop or slash their trade investments in the country due to religious extremism.
The Sultan of Selangor has every reason to be furious. The anti-Japanese festival has been widely reported in Japan. Shah Alam, the venue of the Bon Odori Festival, is home to several big Japanese manufacturing facilities like Panasonic, Sharp and Shin-Etsu Chemical. Obviously, diplomatic and trade ties between Japan and Malaysia could be seriously affected if the offended companies decide to boycott Malaysia.
This is not the first time the Sultan clashed with JAKIM over religious matter. Two months ago (April), the monarch decreed that JAKIM cannot issue any statement regarding the decisions made by the Muzakarah Committee of the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs (MKI), following the appointment of Sultan Sharafuddin by by the Conference of Rulers to be MKI chairman.
The prime minister, who previously was the chairman of MKI, has been demoted as deputy of Selangor Sultan. The move was taken primarily because the arrogant JAKIM had repetitively abused its position as a federal government agency under the Prime Minister’s Department to usurp the power of the monarch as the head of Islam.
In December 2021, Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin issued a royal decree banning politicians from preaching Islam in the state. The decree was specifically targeting the Islamic Party PAS. It was not the first time the Palace revoked the teaching accreditation to politicians. The Selangor Royal Court council made a similar decision back in March 2019, and again in August.
PAS extremists were upset with the royal decree because it would affect the Islamist party’s ability to spread fake news and falsehoods among Malay voters. A PAS leader, Ahmad Dusuki Abdul Rani, was up in arms, claiming that the ban would only widen disunity among Muslims. He even spread dangerous rumours and fears that the royal decree would allow the enemies of Islam to “rejoice”.
The PAS leaders, riding on Islam, had also gone as far as conspiring with Muhyiddin backdoor government and faked the revocation of the emergency laws without the consent from the Palace, a move tantamount to usurping the powers of the King in 2021. It was an act of waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the King), an offence that carries capital punishment – “death penalty”.
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June 8th, 2022 by financetwitter
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Comments
Have you mistaken who was the real backdoor prime minister for 17 months?
When the facts hurt, Rahim would go down as low as possible to twist facts …
This is freakin’ hilarious! So-called religious authorities JERKIN’ and our Al Kedah, Al Kelanstan getting a right royal shag and nice lecture! All long overdue and jolly well deserved too!
Amazing, with wan wave of the Hand or a keris, the Bon festival is made halal. That surely undermines the supposed divine authority of the guardians of the faith now seemingly demoted to the sidelines to bitterly shag themselves and sulk.
This doesn’t look good at all, this mini earthquake of the earthly Almighty trumping the Big Woman up the Sky. The bad/good news is the royal court’s intervention may open the floodgates, more festivals and events may get the Wave or the Nod, the guardians of the faith may lose their authority and power, and maybe even their jobs since there will no longer be any cause for them to boss over others, be fcuking kaypohs, nuisances, frauds, fakes, munafiqs, and hypocrites – which are the main reasons why those circus imitations of Bedouins, Arabs, Afghans, Yemenis, and assorted copies of all the foreign Muslims our monkeys want to be born into the faith for.
We see Muslim girls posing for the Bon thing, they look happy, soon they will want to go to other festivals and events, look happy, hug pop idols, learn other cultures, and maybe even faiths. And the dearies may even like those things they miss in life so much they make it a point to broaden their horizon, ditch their culture – and even faith! They may even learn there’s more to life than being sheep and submissive.
What happens then, such liberated ones respond to a slap by concerned uncles for not covering their heads by kicking the uncles in the fcuking groins? What happens when the dearies want to release, as the authorities call it, the “rapacious sexual appetite” go on fcuking rampages like their men? I can see the men get their huge primitive ego and little goolies squashed, the women are generally more intelligent than their dumb menfolk. And the fcuking dumb men join the clerics and assorted religious clowns to cover up their inferiority, and hold on to the right to boss over and suppress and oppress their women.
JERKIN’ and the rest of the holy hypocrites and frauds have never done anything the slightest useful than being fcuking bunch of little Gestapo jackboots kaypohs over-extending their reach and sticking their fcuking snouts in affairs that are absolutely none of their petty business. The bloody problem with these certified arseh*les is: give them the idea that they’ve been given a bit of misplaced power over the Muslims, and the fcuking monkeys goosestep all over the place deluded they’ve somehow got divine brief to lord it over everybody else! What more ridiculous circus can you get when the monkeys even dress up as imitation Bedouins, Afghans, Yemenis and characters from Ali Baba and Sinbad!
We do have more than our fair share of the seriously mad and seriously delusional among the “religious”, no sh*t! If we are lucky, we might even end up becoming a second Pakistan!
If our monkeys know any better – or anything at all, religious fervour is more than often linked to not just ignorance but mental health problems as well. Have a quick look on at least the internet and you will find the sufficient minimal to confirm the link between the two for you. Often the delightful characters among the mullah-types are mistaken for being fanatics, but to the medical profession they are actually classified as fcuking insane.
At the outset, we do have barely-educated, barely-literate, hardly intelligent, uncultured and barely-civilised entities who want most to be involved in the religion. We have just too many morons too stupid to know they are stupid.
These are the worse and the most dangerous to dump any religion or idea on, let alone any authority. Nothing will make the lunatic mullahs and their followers joyous than to have the right to chop up and whip people in the name of piety and religiosity.
Religion in the hands of primitive morons such as we are blessed with, is dangerous to the extreme. That’s why we have no end of friction big and small with our religious monkey frauds and their fan clubs. And why do our jihadi monkeys go all the way to the Middle East to get pulverised in the wars there? That’s because they are raving lunatics! To make matters more interesting our monkeys have been too freaking stupid to realise too often they have been properly suckered and are blissfully unaware they were actually helping and dying for Western and Israeli interests, and not any Islamic cause at all! Latest has been the raving lunatics of the US-controlled jihadi monkey brigades have gone off to Ukraine to die for their masters in the US.
I’ve come across the Muslims from among the nons who complain about how the ketuanan types treat them and do their wan upmanship, our monkeys always think and feel they are the only true Muslims in the world, the Alamighty speaks only in our Ketuanan pidginspeak.
Let’s get things into perspective, Islam came to China centuries ago when our monkeys were still swinging up the trees and scratching their arses with sticks. Now they swing up the trees and clean their arses with their finger lickin’ good.
The religion and Arabs have a special affection for China and the Chinese. The followers were told to go to China to learn from the Chinese. Malaisesia wasn’t even mentioned. Although our ketuanan monkeys try to twist the Word, the Arabs and others keep the tradition of reverence and respect for China. In all sense, it is against the religion to be disrespectful to China and the Chinese. So much for Ketuanan failing to observe its faith, and insulting the country and folks it should revere.
We’ve hardly got enough religious scholars of any significant standing or ability. Centuries ago, China boasted scholars who were consulted by those in the Muslim world for their authority and scholarship in Islam. The Arab world still respect the clergy in China. But all we have is the ugly Indian religious fraud and refugee from Indian law Fakir Naik who wants the Chinese and Indians out of Malaisesia, and that speaks very well for those monkeys who got the loathsome old subcontinental monkey here! Ketuanan is so lacking in knowledge of Islam that’s why the dumb frauds can only think of a charlatan like Naik to make Malaisesia great again.
Leaving the power and authority of religion in the hands of cave monkeys does not do anything for the religion, and is, in fact, very dangerous particularly to the monkeys themselves. You simply can’t leave anything to those who are so fcuking backward, utterly unintelligent, and emotionally undeveloped as such monkeys we have, Amen.
Our mullahs and assorted religious wnankers must fast unleash their power and goods, stage a fightback against the royals, and maybe take a last stand for our corrupt Muslim way of life. Failing that, we may get a heck of a lot of pork for the kaffirs – and no fcuking chicken for anybody else! Not all religion has a way out of food shortages and can feed the multitude. A parasitic lifestyle of dependence on others to provide dedak as the Ketuanan gospel goes is already bad enough but thinking anti-alcohol and anti-pork and being intolerant is all there is to religion is barking mad – oops I forgot anti-dog!
Today we get the Japanese and their Bon Odori ancestor-worship fest, who knows tomorrow the Chinese might not come up with the Bon Appétit pork-eater fest?
In recent years there’s been all the alarming signs the religion is headed toward extinction. If our mullahs remain silent, do not organise a counterstrike over the Bon Odori edict, then we can expect the religion to slide fast away from the scene and lives of Malaisesians, it will be no more, Amen. Things are fast changing in especially Saudi Arabia, a lot of precepts and teachings in the religion in the land of the two holy cities have been overturned. The holy Hadiths have also been declared unimportant, sidestepped. These changes are like earthquakes even if our dull monkeys don’t wake up to such earth-shattering change that actually nullifies half the religion.
To be fair to our half-baked mullahs, I have to say the Bon Odori actually has Buddhist and
Confucian influences, though I won’t freak out over them. I take the simple line that if you trust the power of your deity to protect you, nothing can ever harm you. Coming in and out of the festival will not affect anyone the Big Woman up the Sky cares about – if only you have real faith in Her.
Still, I would like to see Sleepy Sabrina, pious hypocrite politicians, mentally-retarded mullahs, divine bureaucrats and the religious Gestapo take on royalty and fight the good fight for the heroic stance of the faithful. I would, if I were religiously-warped, rightly freak out more from the bankruptcy the mullahs and fans are despairing over and can’t do more than whine about.
If the mullahs do not defend the faith, it would soon be impossible for the faithful men to whack girls across the head for not covering their hair. If you lose the power to abuse, there may be no meaning or fun in your life, what’s the point of being alive then?
Get the message across everywhere and far and wide about the protection of the power of the mullahs via those loudspeakers for the azams. If that does not happen, who knows the loud and noisy azams may even be blocked by another proclamation by the royals!
This news was reported not only in Japan, but all over the world. Malaysia … again.
The last paragraph of your piece is absolutely unnecessary. Just goes to show how low Finance Twitter can go to show your idolisation of that leader who aspired to be PM for over 23 years … and who absolutely loves the backdoor too.