Contradictions.

I've asked these two questions a number of times and I have never gotten an answer that is satisfactory. Both have things to do with Islamic principles and government policy.

Gripe one. Muslims can't gamble. There are active steps taken to keep them out of Genting. There are signs outside 4D gambling shops warning them to stay away. Yea, sure, lots of Muslims still end up buying the stuff, but what I'm interested in is the official Government stand on this, and not the efficiency of its enforcement. So far, as far as I know, the Government discourages Muslims from buying 4D. So, in essence, the government is against all forms of gambling done by Muslims and will try to regulate and put a stop to instances of it happening.

Yet, their kids gamble all the bloody time, oblivious to the fact that they are gambling. Remember those plastic egg vending machines that seem to be in every comic book and sundry shop? Those that seem to have different content inside? Or the card vending ones for that matter. Dragonball, Power Rangers, that kind of stuff. Thats gambling right there. If it is advertised on the outside that you stand to gain a figurine of hero X when you put a dollar into a machine and twist a dial, you are promising a chance of winning. Its now a game of chance, putting it neatly into the category of judi. If that isn't a clear enough example, here is another one. I remember this from back when I was 12. There is a keropok vendor near my school, selling all manner of crackers. One of his products is a tiny little packet of nearly inedible prawn crackers with a little gift on the inside. The packet itself cost 20 cents, and most of the time, you will get a little plastic lobster that cannot possibly cost more than half a cent. But, you stand to win one of those Tamiya car rip offs that go for about 5 bucks at the pasar malam. There are other prizes too. So, a little token fee for a shot at winning something that is worth 25 times as much as the original investment. Sound familiar?

Its all gambling, and yet these people get away with selling it to Muslims, and Muslim children at that. I'm not a Muslim and if someone pulled this kind of shit of on my 12 year old, I'd get pretty pissed off. And I don't have a God promising me eternal suffering if I went near any of that. Thats just fucked up.

Now, on to the second problem. Alcohol. Muslims can't touch that stuff. (debaters not withstanding) Not even food that has alcohol in it is allowed. Chinese food that contains a bit of rice wine is not halal anymore. Even if eating 2000 portions of it isn't enough to make you drunk. (Which I was told is the main justification for banning alcohol for all Muslims. Drunk people do stupid and very un-Islamic things) So imbibing alcohol molecules in any form is dosa, correct? So whats the deal with tapai? Its served all over the place and is as part of Malay culture as lemang and ulam. But its fermented glutinous rice, and fermented normally indicates a presence of alcohol. I know, because when I smelled a batch when I was a kid, it felt to me like smelling the fumes from a bottle of VHS tape cleaner. The smell of alcohol was THAT strong. Rum and raisin has a distinctive taste of alcohol, but hardly smells that strong. Yet, rum and raisin ice cream is in a fridge that carries the warning to Muslims that rum and raisin is not halal. If this isn't hypocrisy and selective application of rules, then I don't know what is. It is entirely possible that the Jabatan Agama Islam realizes this and decided they cannot do anything about it because the eating of tapai is so ingrained into our society already. I guess they realize what a sudden decision to make tapai non-halal would bring a lot of complications and get people asking questions that they are not quite prepared to answer.

But ignoring the problem is not going to make it go away. I guess with the immense control that the government has on any form of intelligent questioning, these inconsistencies can be stopped from ever surfacing as actual issues. To be honest, I think that they are non-issues too. Its just that if Malaysian Muslims are anal enough to care about the direction of the kiblat from space, and about the halalness of vaccines, I suppose something like this should be considered pretty big problems.