I don't mind being hated for MY opinion. This is fine.
Malaysia is a stupid place to live in, really. We seem to have everything that we need to act as a launching pad into the heady heights of maybe our fellow neighbours, Singapore. Yet, we are too preoccupied dealing with controversial issues such as the ever present 1MDB case which has revolved around our very own Prime Minister.
And then we have issues like renaming hotdogs to sausages because things like that are assumed to be confusing people. And when I say people, I mean Muslims as this is another example of a long fucking list of JAIS/JAKIM determining what Muslims can or cannot understand in this country. Because god knows, all the Muslims we have here never read a book or even watched TV shows of people eating hotdogs.
Now, our favourite Islamic agency has officially said that the term dogs in hotdogs can cause confusion as dogs are haram in Islamic law. Sigh.
Auntie Anne's was a victim here as they had a product they called Pretzel Dogs which might I add was a ever present item on their menu for years now. It was basically sausages wrapped with Pretzel. It tasted great to me. A bit pricey though. This marketing name was not really given much care or thought until the present day where JAKIM decided to reject their halal application because of this incident.
Now, they have retracted their earlier statement because even fools catch on eventually. Sadly, the damage was done and international news channels caught this story and they tore JAKIM and Malaysia apart for the lack of any common sense in tackling this case. It was embarassing but surely there would be no more marketing ploys in the future would cause more problems in Malaysia.
Days later. Yes, just days.
A far more controversial topic arose with news of the pork burger company, Ninja Joe was in hot water for naming one of their new burgers, P.Ramly. Now, a normal person would probably not bat an eye at this specific name. An average Malaysian would realise that they used Ramly which is another burger brand as their name while putting P in front of it making it a clever name to use. Some Muslims however would have put two and two together to see P.Ramly is an awfully close resemblance to the famous actor P.Ramlee.
Now, you might say, it's a non-halal food company anyway. Why would Muslims even care? How did they even find out? Well, I shit you not but a Muslim woman saw the poster advertising this and thought it was halal because it had the name P.Ramly. Luckily, her brain started working again and she avoided being brain-dead. Oh yeah and she also avoided eating the burger.
So this incident apparently caught fire pretty quickly because we Malaysians love talking about Islamic food laws every fucking day. I didn't think much of it at the time because I was really curious at what the Islamic authorities could do anyway. They don't have jurisdictions on non-Islamic matters and this was really not one of them. At most, Ninja Joe would probably apologize and change the name or something. Then we'll move on with our lives again.
I was wrong as JAIS decided to raid one of their stores. For some reason. To probably burn some pork in an incinerator. Or something. It was dumb and clearly wrong. How could this happen to a non-halal store? It frightens me to think that an extended field of power has been granted to our already trigger happy Islamic authorities.
A lot of Muslims got pretty triggered at the name which was easily understandable. It was pretty insulting to them that a national Muslim icon was to their eyes, being used as a non-halal marketing ploy. To sum it up, Muslims really don't like pigs. They even use babi as an insult to people they don't like. Put pigs and someone popular that is Muslim and backlash will ensue. It was volatile from the very beginning and the signs of it blowing up was there.
Some Muslims actually saw through what Ninja Joe was actually doing. It was a very smart name in fact. It was a tribute to the Ramly burger and they just added P in front of it for pork. Hence, P.Ramly was born. Yes, its name is similar to P.Ramlee. Smart and catchy. Perfect for promoting an upcoming and relatively unknown burger with new ingredients and taste. It was simply just wordplay which is used in a lot of other restaurants all over the world !
Do the angry Muslims with pitchforks have a point here? Kind of. I guess. It was a smart name but I'm sure Ninja Joe did not expect Muslims to give a fuck about what they name their burgers as it is , I repeat a fucking non-halal restaurant. That means zero Muslims will be a customer in their shops. They simply underestimated the word of mouth of angry Muslims.
It is definitely an insult to P.Ramlee from a very certain viewpoint. People have angrily made their case from the safety of their keyboards ( like me ) and having read them, it is very understandable where they are coming from. Now, their rage which has boiled down till present day cannot be justified any longer.
As predicted, Ninja Joe has apologized, taken down the posters and removed its name from all of their branches in Malaysia. As you can see, they have truly realized how much they fucked up and pretty much did what they can to limit the damage. They did not really need to do what they did as again I repeat, they are in no obligation to change anything they do as they do not cater to the Muslim community. But they did so. Which should be applauded.
Yet, JAIS/JAKIM are still thinking of suing Ninja Joe for confusing Muslims into buying their food in a NON-HALAL restaurant. Seriously, the real idiots here are not Ninja Joe, the Muslims or even P.Ramlee, god bless his soul. It's our fellow Islamic authorities.
I swear if they actually succeed in suing Ninja Joe, I am actually going to fear for the future of Malaysia. The seeds of Islamic extremism are being slowly grown as non-halal restaurants are being fucking sued by Islamic authorities for violating Islamic law. Now, that is something scary.
In conclusion, I have my very own opinion and I shall remain steadfast in my views. Ninja Joe was unlucky and sightly dumb in the marketing name. Some of the Muslims made a mountain out of a molehill here although their stand was perfectly understandable. JAIS/JAKIM just like being in the news for the wrong reasons.
These two incidents have set the bar very low for the mentality of the Malaysia government and its people. Age-old questions have been asked again following incidents such as these. Is Malaysia a secular or Islamic country? Are we ready to embrace the winds of change even if it bends Islamic laws slightly? Can we ever progress as a nation despite the backwards mentality that some Malaysians have?
Food for thought.
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