BY: CATHERINE SAW

The video of a Malaysian Chinese university student being slapped by an Islamic extremist for supposedly failing to observe fasting in Johor Baru recently has spared an unnecessary outcry in the Holy month of Ramadan.

In the incident, a Malay-Muslim confronted the university student at the Family Mart convenience store for eating and asked for his identification to prove he was not a Muslim before slapping him twice.

While investigations are ongoing by the police, what is appalling to note is that the video went viral and created such a ruckus as many Malaysian netizens took to social media to spark race and religion sensitivities.

In the ensuing melee, an ex-university professor from the student’s university also voiced his unsolicited opinion of how race relations were going to the dogs in this country in a video that also went viral to add fuel to fire.

By adding sweeping generalisations on the race issue in the country these Malaysians blew this isolated incident by a possible fanatical Muslim out of proportion when millions of Malay Muslims live in peace and harmony with the other races.

Malaysia does not have a race and religion issue, but isolated cases of racism and religious bigotry get picked up by them, and go viral which is a crying shame as it does not reflect the general perception of camaraderie among the races in the country.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher