Respect use of animal symbols during CNY: Malaysia's Islamic agency , Latest World News - The New Paper
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Respect use of animal symbols during CNY: Malaysia's Islamic agency

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PETALING JAYA: The use of animal symbols and images during Chinese New Year is something that must be respected by everyone, says the chief of Malaysia's powerful Islamic agency Jakim.

"Even though animal symbols are used during Chinese New Year, the concept of co-existence dictates that all parties need to respect this practice and maintain harmony between all races," said Mr Othman Mustapha, director-general of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim).

"This is in line with government's policy of using a wasatiyyah (moderate) approach," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

His comments came after a recent controversy in the country when festive T-shirts sold last month at Giant Hypermarket, which has 110 stores across Malaysia, had only 10 of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals printed on them.

Missing from the T-shirts were the dog and the pig, animals considered unclean among the country's Muslim majority.

While the other 10 animals of the zodiac like the rooster and rabbit were represented by cute drawings, the dog and the pig had to settle for Chinese characters "xu" and "hai", respectively.

Ethnic Chinese across the world are preparing to usher in the Year of the Dog next week.

Malaysian media reports recently said some businesses and shopping malls were wary of using dog images in their Chinese New Year decorations so as not to offend Muslims who are growing more religiously conservative. - THE STAR

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