On Islamic Cars.

Today, I read the paper, hoping for some nice, sensible news. INSTEAD, do you know what i got?

"Proton to work on 'Islamic' car concept"

Good god.

According to this article, (NST, 11th November 2007, page 15) Malaysia, along with Iran and Turkey, plan to produce 'Islamic' cars for the global market.

What the hell is an Islamic car? According to the article, its a car with 'Islamic Features', such as a compass, kiblat reading, and compartments for keeping the Al-Quran and scarves.

Question: Whats the best way to reduce religious tension in a multi-racial, multi-religious country?

Answer: Why, make a car and give it a religion, of course!

This is absurd, and the concept of a car for one religion is asking for trouble.

Lets say this car performs well compared to other proton cars. Can a non-muslim purchase it? Would a non-muslim WANT to buy a car called 'Islamic'?

By the careless use of the word 'Islamic', Proton has just created a rift. And this is a time when inter-religious relationships are reaching a boiling point. People might argue that this is a small matter, but even small matters can have big effects.

This problem could be avoided by not calling the car an 'Islamic Car' but rather a muslim friendly vehicle, and maybe manufacturing the car in two slightly different models, one with all the features mentioned above, and one without. This is way better than making one car model, marketed as an 'Islamic Car'.

Whats the point of making an 'Islamic Car'? To help spread the religion? Please. Only muslims would buy the car. To make people better muslims? Thats bull. A muslim with an car isnt better than a muslim without it. To make modern automobiles 'Muslim Friendly'? Are modern vehicles unfriendly to them? A compass can be put in, and why do you want to store a Quran in a car? And scarves can be put anywhere. They're just bits of clothes.

No, i think its the commercial potential. So many muslims would JUMP at the chance to own an ISLAMIC car. Why not? Its something to be proud about! The size of the global market! MONEY!

Its shameful, really, the way people would take advantage of good religious people, just in the name of money. Any sort of commercialising or politiscing (is that a word) or any religion, is trully despicable. Thats called SELLING a religion. And whichever god you worship, or pretend to worship, he's not gonna like it.

Screw Out.