Commenting on the opinion letter "How about a Syariah Law-based Dress Act?" The article is great if locals living in this country are all Muslims like in Saudi Arabia, but we are living in a country with many races and with many beliefs and religions.
The writer wrote: "It should be based on the Syariah Law and should be imposed on everyone in the country be they foreigners or locals, Muslims or non-Muslims, tourists or expatriates."
What is the dress code based on Syariah Law? If we are talking about strict Islamic law it should be covering everything except the eyes, like wearing a burqa. If we use common sense, if a lady only wears tudung, we can still see her face and her beauty can still attract any man.
My question to the writer is "do you really need to force non-Muslim locals and foreigners to wear tudung? If you can't stand seeing them... just don't look at them!
How would you feel if you go to Papua New Guinea and the law there says everyone including foreigners must follow their dress code? To them it's a sacred custom that they highly respect - wearing nothing but pampers made from leaves, while the ladies are topless.
How would we Muslims feel if we are forced to dress like a Jew if we were to visit Jerusalem?
We cannot force non-Muslims to dress like Muslims as this can cause them to hate Islam. But we can request them to dress in whatever clothes they want as long as the dress covers areas forbidden for a Muslim to see. We appreciate them respecting our religion but we should not force them to follow our religion's dress code.
I was told there are pictures of Malay women performing immoral acts while wearing tudung in the Internet!
We should concentrate more on preventing Muslims from committing immoral acts rather than forcing non-Muslims to follow Syariah dress code.
