【Kuala Lumpur ＝Malaysia BIZ Navi】　Criticism has reprised from Minister Idris Ahmad (Religious affairs) calling upon muslims to not participate in the "Bon Odori Festival" in Selangor and Penang on the grounds that there are pagan elements in said festival and Perlis religious scholar Mohd Asri Zainul’s proposal in the changing of the "Bon Odori Festival" name.

Religious scholar Dr. Mohd Asri noted that there is conflict between Selangor state sultan and Peang state, Malaysia Liberals's "No issue" and Minister Idris and Penang state's Mufti Dr. Wan Salim's "Issue" opinions. As a means to meet eye-to-eye, he proposed the idea of changing the event's name to "Japanese culture festival". He also suggested that there should be police force present at the event. 

The main idea was to avoid any changes to the event and as a neutral way in solving this issue. Then lies the question of, "Do religious authorities think we are easily influenced by events due to our our lack of faith?" and "If we change the name now, does this apply to all future foreign events as well?", with some even voicing out that the renaming of event as "disrespectful to foreign cultures" and "insulting to Japan."

From the start, Liberals and non-Malays community has voiced their criticism on Mohd Asri's  statement. The Selangor and Penang state government has expressed their intention to hold the event as projected.  However, the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), to which Minister Idris belongs to, and others ignored the Sultan's statement and invite, and instead, also demanded that Muslims refrain from participating.

提供元：Asia Infonet