COMMENT | Never been to Bon Odori, I had to go this time

COMMENT | After I posted about what a wonderful time I had last Saturday at my first Bon Odori, a friend commented, “Those who never bother to learn and explore beyond their tempurung (coconut shell) are making too much noise. Going by their logic, Malaysia needs to be sealed off from the rest of the world.”

This led me to Google “Hadi Awang tempurung” as I remembered him slamming Malaysians who dared to speak and write in English. But my phone autocorrected it to “Hadi Awang tempura”!

Oh well, maybe such Japanese foods may open up the minds of the ulama who don’t seem to like people having good, clean fun.

We all know that one month ago, PAS’ Religious Affairs Minister Idris Ahmad told Muslims to stay away from the Japanese Bon Odori festival, claiming that it was “influenced by elements of other religions”.

This petty fault-finding would be a...