Heck, even rooftops of a housing project that resemble crosses from afar had to be repainted so that some Muslims in Malaysia won’t get confused and Christianized. But this Southeast Asian country isn’t done with entertaining the world with jokes linked to its extremist Malay Muslims, who for some bizarre reason would be easily misled and confused.

After trying to claim exclusivity over “Allah”, the Arabic word for God, some incredibly confused Muslims believed that a local dish called “nasi kandar” belongs to them simply because the popular northern meal were “largely consumed by Muslims”. Mr Suresh Gnanasekaran, the owner of a stall who got creative with his “pork nasi kandar”, became the latest victim of religious extremism.

His stall attracted debate – and free publicity – when a local food influencer’s video on social media described how “porkfection” it was with the “Malaysia’s first pork nasi kandar”. Diners can choose mouth-watering pork or pork luncheon on top of chicken, mutton and vegetable to satisfy their kicks. This time, however, another type of Muslims have taken offence – the Mamaks.

Unimpressed, the Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) has criticized Suresh’s Nasi Kandar for confusing and misleading Muslims. Its president, Jawahar Ali Khan – trying to be more Muslim than the Malay Muslims – said the stall was not only misleading and insensitive, but also insulting to customers who believe all nasi kandar is halal Muslim food.

Not every Muslim was as gullible as the Presma president though. As a start, the owner of the “pork nasi kandar” did not try to trick Muslim diners into believing that his food was halal. In fact, he should be given a medal for telling all and sundry that his food was “non-halal”. The logo of the stall was a “wild boar”. And it’s clearly written “Non-HALAL Nasi Lemak & Nasi Kandar”.

The menu on the stall clearly stated the delicacy as “Nasi Lemak Babi” (pork nasi lemak). The huge banner promoting the opening of the stall, with operating hour from 7:30am to 4pm daily, also stated “Non-Halal” with a menu that included roast pork. Heck, the food stall was located in a Chinese coffee shop, which Mr Suresh rented based on the belief that no Muslims would dine at such a non-halal restaurant.

He said – “If you follow me on Instagram and Facebook, the words ‘non-halal’ are clearly stated. Even in every post, ‘non-halal’ is written in large letters. We make it clear and unambiguous. Even the business logo shows the image of the animal. So, there shouldn’t be any confusion. I’ve registered under the ‘non-halal’ business category. So, I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong.”

It’s not Suresh Gnanasekaran problem if a moron mamak like Jawahar Ali Khan, or other ignorant Muslim extremists for that matter, is still confused and dumb enough to accidentally order and eats “pork nasi kandar” despite all the clarification and declaration. Exactly why would a Muslim blindly walk into a non-halal stall selling non-halal dishes located in a non-halal coffee shop?

Equally laughable was the suggestion that the eatery – Pumbaa’s in Damansara Jaya – should be banned or declared illegal for selling pork based on the argument that nasi kandar was originally introduced by Tamil Muslim traders from India. Just because the Mamak brought the meal to Malaysia, it does not mean the Muslims can claim exclusivity, let alone owns the “nasi kandar” trademark.

Going by such twisted logic, all Muslims should stop selling dim sum, yong tau foo, chee cheong fun and even char kuey teow. Surely the Chinese can claim exclusivity to such food, not to mention the fact that the Chinese invented noodles at least 4,000 years ago. Do the religious extremists know who actually supplies beehoon, white rice noodles (kuey teow) or the yellow noodles used to fry “mee goreng Mamak”?

Yes, perhaps Presma should order all its Muslim restaurant owners to stop selling all types of noodles as the producers or manufacturers could have tainted them with pig DNA, similar to the hilarious attempt by Malaysian authorities to trace pork in Cadbury chocolate in 2014. The term “nasi kandar” literally translates to “mixed rice” in Malay, not some special invention worth going to war.

While it was both flabbergasting and entertaining to see how some people could go ballistic over a plate of non-halal nasi kandar, which was not meant to be sold to the Muslims from the beginning, the obsession to dictate what non-Muslims can or cannot do has reached another new level. Tourism Minister Tiong King Sing finally gets a taste of religious extremism and bigotry.

A lawmaker from Bintulu, Mr Tiong was accused by opposition lawmaker Mas Ermieyati Samsudin of misconduct, therefore unfit to hold the portfolio, for partying and dancing, including drinking alcohol while celebrating a Gawai festival in Sarawak last year. Ermieyati was joined by her colleague, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, who mocked Tiong as a “drunkard”.

Mas Ermieyati and Wan Saiful, both from Bersatu (Malaysian United Indigenous Party) that lost in the November 2022 General Election, clearly did not understand the Chinese culture, let alone the Dayak people in Sarawak. As a non-Muslim, Tiong has the right to drink and eat as much pork as he wants and as a minister, he has his own chauffeur to drive him home safely.

Perhaps Bersatu, in order not to embarrass itself as an indigenous party, should start learning that the indigenous Dayak people brew and drink rice wine called “tuak”, which they consume during the Gawai festival. There are about 3.6 million Dayak in Borneo, where 63% of them are predominantly Christians. Therefore, it would only be weird if Tiong didn’t drink at the festival.

Even if Tiong was drunk, why he was not, it’s better to be drunk with alcohol than be drunk with power, corruption or extremism as demonstrated by Bersatu lawmakers. The party is plagued with numerous corruption charges, including disgraced power-hungry party president Muhyiddin Yassin and Wan Saiful, who is facing a new round of 18 counts of money laundering charges.

Besides being charged with 18 money laundering charges last month, Wan Saiful also failed in July to quash a charge of accepting an RM6.9 million bribe and another charge of soliciting an unspecified amount in relation to the Jana Wibawa initiative. He shamelessly received kickbacks from Nepturis Sdn Bhd in exchange for a lucrative road project – Central Spine Road worth a staggering RM232 million.

Ex-premier Muhyiddin, the country’s first backdoor prime minister, was slapped with four counts of corruptions and two counts of money laundering charges linked to RM600 billion Covid scandal. His son-in-law, Muhammad Adlan Berhan, under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), had fled the country and is now on Interpol’s Red Notice list.