Culture Killer

Submitted by A Fed-Up Malay (Singapore), Aug 28, 2009 at 16:00

You are right when say that Valentine's Day is a western tradition, and I would grudgingly yield that it has no place in Islamic culture. But what would you say if I assert that Islam is a foreign import in Malaysia and is as foreign to Malay culture as Valentine's Day is? The Islamic religion has played a bigger role in the death of original Malay culture than any western idea. For the sake of being "better" Muslims, Malays have amputated themselves of significant parts of their own culture and have taken to "Arabization" in a bid to better practice this foreign religion. I'll admit that celebrating Valentine's Day as a Malay would be culturally odd, but how much more odd than using Arabic to pray when I don't even speak the language in my daily life?

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