Overview
Business
Negotiations
Teamwork
Organizations
Religion
Business
Communication
Resources
Organizational
Culture
Bibliography
|
The
predominant Malaysian religions include: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Sikhism, and Christianity.
The most practiced religion in Malaysia
is Islam. This belief is practiced by millions of Malaysians across
Malaysia and across the world. In modern Malaysia, the religion of
Islam is protected as the National Religion of Malaysia in the Constitution
of the country. The Constitution, however, guarantees absolute freedom
of religious practice for everybody, yet it does not allow the broadcast
of another faith to one who is a Muslim. Also under the Constitution is
the provision that Islam is a state matter, and that only state governments
have the authority to pass legislation concerning Islam, and to exert executive
authority over Islamic matters in their own state. Each state government
is responsible for the setting up and operation of statutory bodies such
as Muslim (or Syariah) Courts and State Religious Councils. Through
these bodies, they are responsible for a whole range of Islamic laws and
practices such as the collection of religious dues for disbursement to
the poor and needy. Syariah Courts only have jurisdiction over Muslims.
However, since 1988, Muslims are no longer under the jurisdiction of the
secular courts of the country.
Another major religion in Malaysia is Hindu.
Hinduism is the religion of the bulk of Indians living in Malaysia today,
most of who came to Malaysia from Tamil Nadu State in southern India.
Because of this, the most found form of Hinduism in Malaysia is the Shaivite
form, which has as its major deities Murugan (or Subramaniam) and Mariamman.
Modern Hinduism is practiced much differently than how it was practiced
150 years ago. They worship in temples just like the Sikhs, Muslims
and the Buddhist. The most renowned of these temples is the Sri Maha Mariamman
temple in Jalan Tun H.S. Lee, Kuala Lumpur.
Sikhism received its start from the British.
The Sikhs are a group the size of about 40,000 to 50,000. Sikhism
is the religion where the soul of the Sidhist worshipper goes through life,
birth, and death until it reaches the true human form. They believe
there only to be one formless God and, as a result, idol worship is banned.
Their ideas of how they reach perfection are much different than most western
views. Originally made up of police and other security personnel, later
arrivals of Sikhs included the business and professional classes.
Buddhism began with the Chinese, and is the religion
of most of the Chinese in Malaysia. Buddhism was the earliest Malaysian
religion to surface. Its roots emerged around 1 AD and started out
very small. Buddhism is now just as highly practiced as many of the
other religions. There are many Chinese Buddhist Temples to be found throughout
Malaysia, each attached to a Buddhist Association or Society. Another
type of Buddhist religion is the Theravada, which is Buddhism for non-Chinese
Buddhists. The Theravada worship in temples like most of the other religions.
Followers of Theravada Buddhism are located mainly in the northern part
of the country, in the States of Kedah, Perlis and Kelantan.
Christianity was started in the early 15th century
by Portuguese settlers looking to establish a community and spread Christianity.
One million of Malaysia’s population, or about eight percent are Christian
and practice Christianity as their religion of choice. All the Christian
bodies in Malaysia have come together under one organization called the
Christian Federation of Churches. |