Since the usage of 'Allah' in Malaysia, and its judicial review are trending, I guess I'd better stick up my talking points for (a) representation, and (b) so that I don't just make shit up when engaging in casual conversations about this subject - better to be sure about what I'm saying, if one is likely to be unpopular anyway, right?
The Constitution of Malaysia addresses freedom of religion for Malaysians, however it surely gets stuck at its absence of a further definition of what religion is. This is a trite but often forgotten element which is fundamental to the discussion of constitutional rights of religion, and the role of religion in the Federation.
A conservative view might be that 'religion' refers only to 'well known religions' - in fact the Federal registration agency of Malaysia recognises only a handful of options for citizens.
However a more balanced view might be that 'religion' until otherwise defined has a rather broad set of referents. There is ample literature on this, so I won't dig in here.
I have strange beliefs, and I'm generally happy to discuss them. Mostly I study people, and I have views on how people are structured. I used to carry 'party cards' which designated my role as 'cyberpunk prophet' or something like that - I mean, hello, who else but me is the voice of my beliefs? (It could have been 'cynical' not 'cyberpunk' - but I'll have to go see if I can find old documents. :P )
Oh well, that was back in 2005 or 2006 ... I ended up rarely going to parties, the ones I knew of around town were pretty boring, and I focused a lot more on my professional development and skilling. That too has been a core component of my religion.
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