Yesterday's Malaysian Star newspapers had the headline that the government lifted restrictions to visit Israel. Before that Malaysian Christians were only allowed to visit Jerusalem for 10 days. The Menorah you see on my blog was purchased in Jerusalem during my friend's pilgrimage there in 2005. So it is a Jerusalem menorah which I treasure greatly, a sign, perhaps that I will wait until the government abolishes all restrictions for Malaysians to visit Israel any-time and for whatever length of time permitted by Israel like for any other country. Indonesia, the biggest Muslim nation in the world has never imposed any restrictions on her citizens to visit Israel and I don't see why Malaysia should be overly cautious if it wants to be known as a moderate Muslim nation where 40 percent of its population are non-Muslims. As much as we welcome the softening on the part of the government, I find it ridiculous that we should treat this partial lifting of restrictions as an early Christmas present to Malaysian Christians as some have called it.
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