Kuala Lumpur: In an apparent move to end the controversy over whether Muslims should send festival greetings to Hindus, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on Wednesday said the joint religious celebrations of Diwali and Id strengthen unity in the multi-racial country.
"I hope there will be no confusion regarding the matter with talk that Muslims might have gone contrary to their faith," Abdullah said adding the joint celebration will not tarnish the image of Islam.
The controversy erupted over an email sent by the head of the Shariah department of an Islamic finance company Takaful advising his Muslim staff not to greet Hindus on Diwali.
"Hindus will celebrate Deepavali on Saturday while Muslims will celebrate Id-ul-fitr next Tuesday or Wednesday," the premier said adding the people of either faith acted according to what was required of them by their respective religions.
As the two festivals fall close to one another, Malaysians celebrate them in togetherness, he said.
"In terms of social relations, it is not a problem for us to visit our Hindu friends at their homes during Deepavali. Even when the festivals did not fall close to each other, we used to do that. Or they come to visit us on Id-ul-fitr there is no problem at all," he said.
"It has nothing to do with tarnishing the respective religions," Bernama news agency quoted him as saying. At a function here held to give Id-ul-fitr and Diwali goodies, Abdullah said he wanted to continue with the practice of presenting the festival gifts, which was initiated by his late wife Endon.
Diwali and Id often occur back to back and are celebrated together in Malaysia, which is popularly called "Deeparaya."
Among Malaysia's 26 million population, 60 per cent is Muslim Malay, 25 per cent Chinese and 10 per cent Indian, who are mainly Hindus and Christians. All religions are free to practice their faith.
Malaysian company, Takaful, had on Tuesday apologised for an email sent by the firm's Shariah department chief Mohd Fauzi Mustaffa to all his staff saying it was blasphemous for Muslims to wish their Hindu friends "Happy Deepavali".
In a statement, Takaful said the contents of the email did not "in any way" represent its views and wished Malaysians of Hindu faith a "Happy Deepavali".
Several people, including Works minister and President of the Malaysian Indian Congress Say Vellu and senior government officials were also upset over the email.
Fauzi's email said by wishing "Happy Durga Pooja, Happy Lakshmi Pooja and Happy Deepavali" a muslim could be deemed as extending greetings to the Hindu gods Durga, Lakshmi and Krishna.
He claimed that this was blasphemous and against the teachings of Islam. He has since apologised for his email.
Meanwhile, two police reports were lodged against Mohd Fauzi on Tuesday, one by Sivanesan Achalingam, who acted as legal counsel to a group of NGOs and another by Angkatan Pelopor India Muslim Selangor dan Wilayah Persekutuan (Apim) chairman Ramli Abdullah.
Sivanesan said the email had incited racial feelings. He said the NGOs also wanted to know whether disciplinary action would be taken against Mohd Fauzi.
Ramli said the email was sensitive and challenged the tolerance of the different races in Malaysia.
Last week Malaysia's top Indian politician Samy Vellu criticised Fauzi's remarks saying "We cannot ignore extremist elements who always try to propagate their own thoughts to disrupt the peace in the country."
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdullah Md Zin had said the circular was a personal view and that it was a narrow interpretation of Islam.
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