TV 3's Hari Raya Controversial Advertisement

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1245600230#!/video/video.php?v=1275079176949&ref=mf

The link above will direct you to the video... I will like to thank my friend for highlighting this to me. He was asking me whether the advertisement looks like a Christmas ad. There was also some elements of Buddhism.

Okay, so what's the problem? A Hari Raya ad is to wish the Muslims happy celebrating Raya, a festival for Muslims. It is also known as "Eid al -Adha". I just google up why we celebrate hari raya and it says and i quote :

is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, but instead was able to sacrifice a ram (by God's command). Eid is also about spending time with family and friends, sacrifice, and thanksgiving for being able to afford food and housing.

OOO, now i actually know why we celebrate Hari Raya... Luckily i bothered to ask myself that question. Kindda embarrass though. Anway...

Looking at the controversial video, i did see elements of Christianity and Buddhism. Christianity because of the "bicycle like vehicle (i think it's a trishaw?)" flies across the sky like santa claus on a sledge and Buddhism because of the lotus flower. It also has some connection with Hindu.

All these can't be a coincidence. Of all the flowers in Malaysia, you picked a lotus? Why not the hibiscus, it's the national flower right? As for the santa claus sledge thing, the first thing that came across my mind is that why don't they make a flying magic carpet? I don't know why that crossed my mind, maybe i was thinking about Aladdin? I think if it was a magic carpet, people would be less suspicious and won't associate it with santa clause sledge. Aladdin is based on Arabic culture so it's less offensive?

Since Najib became the Prime Minister, Malaysia has this strong motto of "1 Malaysia", to build racial unity. Everything is 1 Malaysia now. 1 Malaysia this, 1 Malaysia that. It's a great motto actually. So perhaps this video was based on the concept of 1 Malaysia, assuming there was no ill intention when this video was made.

So who made the video? Weren't there Muslim people involved? Didn't they notice the controversial parts? If truly the person making the video made it based on the 1 Malaysia concept, he probably tried to combine elements of Christianity, Buddhism and Hindu and Islam together. Good and creative intention but not the smartest move since you can't really mix religions together.

You can show racial unity by showing non muslims visiting the muslims house for the raya celebration. But definitely not combining elements of each religion together.

But personally i think the santa claus signifies culture rather than religious elements while the lotus flowers definitely has something to do with the religion :

In Buddhist symbolism, the lotus represents purity of the body, speech, and mind as if floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. According to legend, Gautama Buddha was born with the ability to walk, and lotus flowers bloomed everywhere he stepped.

So is it wrong to combine something from culture into a religion? In Islam, it's not wrong provided it's not against the teachings of Islam.

For all me know, this is just a sad mistaken move in making a video. I hope people don't simply jump to conclusion this video was aimed to hurt the Muslims...