Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas, director-general of Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia feels insulted because the whole Islamic car plan.
I quote him, “A car is not the right place for the Quran, neither is a cars rear windshield the right place to display verses from the Quran.”
Read the column titled “Just what is an Islamic car?” to find out more.
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After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Poor idea from poor carmaker, you can’t simply put a religion to a product. Bizarre marketing to justify economic gain.
What he said is right. Islam is a complete guide in every aspect of life. That’s why when Pak Lah mooted Islam Hadhari it is objected by many people, because Islam is only 1. The right term is Civilization based on Islamic teachings and root. Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas has the knowledge and we should thank he come out with his view on this plan.
in newspaper 2 week ago.. about iran suggestion to produce islami car.. to put kompass toward mecca .. i think should be look like middle east/arabic art..
i’ve been driving an infidel car? :P i’m kidding!
Branding a car around religion isn’t a smart move. a car is supposed to be branded around quality and reliability.
i guess that’s why proton branded the former, and not the latter.
Like i said Any Religion + car (the ultimate symbol of materialistic needs) = BAD IDEA!.
Dr. Syed Ali Tawfik’s article was well writen and put these “knowing” muslims in their rightful place. However, knowing how these “knowing” people thinks, I’m sure they will argue and proclaim Dr. Syed is wrong.
His best quote was “Islamic, Islamisation and so on – are being CORRUPTED by those who KNOW NOT, AND KNOW NOT THAT THEY KNOW NOT.”
That’s a very good read, Paul. Obviously it’s a marketing strategy got backfired. I felt strange too when the idea first surfaced. The term “Islamic Car” itself got me curious. Then I learned how they defined “Islamic Car” and I was like, “Oh okay… if that’s how they put it”.
Interesting headlines our much-prided national carmaker is making, of late.
Yeah basically i agree with Dr Syed Ali. Good that some influential scholar can speaks his mind clearly. Great kudos to him !!
The idea of branding a car with religion mooted by Proton is mere rubbish and extremely stupid. If so, i hope Lexus will come out later with their ‘Shintoism’ car, BMW, Merc, Ferrari, Porsche will come out with their ‘Atheist’ or ‘Christian’ car…and we’ll see which religion’s car will be among the superior and which will be a moronic loser.
As what Dr Syed Ali said, those people know shite about what they are grumbling about.
…
stupid idea from stupid people may result in looking very stupid. hope no more stupid idea come again from them. make me look stupid and this may causing us all Malaysians to become a laughing stock.
please don’t do this to us!
Religion and believes are in one’s heart ,thinking, and actions. You do not need to coat the car with memorabilias, stickers, idols etc to show that you are religious.
Being religious is being respectful of other human being, sensitive to the environment, co-sharing the use of the facilities, and not doing harm to others.
LG make a hp that have kiblat pointer and azan timer. NO ONE COMPLAIN. so whats wrong if proton/Iran put that gadget in a car. the problem is when somebody LABELED it as Islamization. like my comments before, this very depend on market demand, if proton is really stupid, they have long introduced that Islamic car at our Malaysian market. but if this “Islamic car” can bring profit for proton at Iran market, why blow away the chance?
At first I found it strange but after reading Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas comments, I too feel it’s a bit too insulting. I mean, when a car can have ‘religion’ as a special edition or variant, things have gone too far. What is next? Buddhist cars? Sikh cars? Catholic cars? Syrian Orthodox cars? Religion shouldn’t be used for consumer products. God is not to be merchandised.
I think this whole “islamic car idea” is s2pid… Why wanna create an religious car where we can use ordinary car to keep all those quran and etc? What about resale value? They only can sell their cars to islam people which won’t make much profit coz not all islam people will have the same taste and etc… It will only be a waste….
very bad sales gimmick… seriously.. to brand a religion to a car.. its kinda disrespectful IMO. do they have to stoop so low jst to get extra sales volume.. must be desperate..
By the way, what maibatsu_thunder said is true also…
Yeah, a product should not use a religion to sell it… if something like vandalism happed on the car will it be insulting islam?
maibatsu_thunder u r very right about it.
Why don’t market Juara as coffin carrying car or coffin car by itself?
Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas is a wise man and knowlegde-full about Islam.
Proton can do whatever needed for Iranian market,but please scrape the term ‘Islamic’,it don’t make sense at all..religion is faith and not for business..not a good idea…
its not protons idea but that iranian company who is supose to assemble proton cars thr…in this islamophobia age….thy should have been smarter than caling it islamic car….thy should know that ppl wil catch on it n start redicule the idea…..i mean y wd relate the car to islam is beyond me….
just another way to waste our money, lead to more and more corruption.
all stupid p1 management got all theirs stupid ideas, stupid design, stupid calculation and stupid talks too. dun make other ppls look down to us!!!
GOOD ONE Dr Syed!
proton should concentrate more on improving quality and reliability instead, rather than this poorly thought marketing gimmick.
Today PROTON share touched all time low of $3.60 !!!
It has been down about $1.40 or 28% in 3 days since the announcedment of not working with a foereign partner.
Given the very poor fundamendal value in terms of tecnical, service and business, it is not a surprise if drop below $3, as the citizens and investors know this company has no hope to survive on its own.
By the way, the power window problem, water leaks problem, gear problem, plastic cracking and many problem STILL exist in new models….
Its better that way. No Islamic car. Shares all time low, well they would not even be bothered. Maybe until the share is valueless like British Leyland than only will start selling to foreign investors.
well the idea for quran compartments is good but dont brand its as islamic car
LG never brand its phone as islamic phone its just stated the function of the phone that got direction to mecca
orang melayu, don’t let islam affect your life too much,.
you are human, not korban.
althought we are chinese but we cannot trigger any ethnicity issues in here.
Well, good try, but its a stupid one, proton.
wow alibapa care full with ur statment its not org melayu who want the islamic car but iranian so please dont involve org melayu ok. all of us have our own belief so dont talk about other belief just talk about the car ok
First and foremost..
the idea of so called Islamic car is mooted by Iran not Proton.So, why blame Proton for all of these. From my personal view, the idea is good, built a car that have a feature to pointed to Mecca, special compartment to place Quran..etc. But to label it as Islamic Car is not appropriate/no need.
cheers
stupid move by proton
so at the end, after 32 comments, and a very angry Dr. Syed, it concludes we all are just humans. why? islam have always ask its follower to pratice the teaching of the religion modarately, with the best niat (intentions). yet most of us forget that one most important point.
the use of the term “islamic car’ may not be grammartically correct according to the doc, but the notion is not entirely bad. y?
1. time have changed, not all of us can look for a surau or masjid to perform our daily duties 5 times a day. within a SUV or MPV might be decent place to do prayers if needed so. we have plus highway r&r for long journey but iran might not.
2. quran is the core of islamic teaching and knowlegde to be “applied” in everything we do. but again time changes, situation changes, lifestyle changes, its not a constant. when quran was scripted, there wasnt even internet, so will it be sinful to post the quran scripts on the web and not printed pages? so if i install the quran verse into the i-drive, would it be ok?
3. islam is indeed the fastest growing religion on a global scale, some non-muslim even prefer the HALAL food as the islam way of processing food is better. so you mean we can tell the world malaysia sells halal food? Perhaps we should call it a HALAL car? would the doctor be less angry?
4. there are many components in a car that we ourselves might not know the origins is halal or otherwise. if have a moist-proof and fingerprint recognition lookcompartment to store my personal quran, would it be so bad? if the transporter is a muslim, wouldnt it be nice if he can read a few verses while waiting for his client or right before the next baddie comes and steal his car?
5. if you are in the middle or the war, not knowing when you are going to be blasted to pieces, would Allah mind if the maybe Proton/Lotus APEX 4WD-turned-war-vehicle have a decent place to put the quran or have a bismilah stamped at the dashboard?
and the list goes on….
so, maybe the term “islamic car” might not be accurate or politically correct, so lets be constructive and suggest a list of possible terms: eg. car for middle countries, car custom for muslim clients etc etc
Allah ask us to do the right thing, the islam way, the way of our prophets. by trying to sell more car, make more money for the country (we are an islamic country), offer more jobs (to fellow muslim), make more happy muslim families happy to have their own car, make us as a model country for the world…. you get the drift. WHAT SO WRONG ABOUT THAT?
I being a Proton hater, supports the notions of the MD, if not for him we will be still think malaysian have to bend down to the imperialism of western economies. if one day, proton becomes VW of china but in middle east, that wont be to bad isn’t it? this is blue ocean strategies! wake-up people!
who coined the term?
shallow shallow…
why proton like lost n still find it direction???
” … according to Proton Holdings Bhd managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir. He however, did not claim the proposal was his idea, rather, according to the report the idea was mooted by Iran… ”
ahaha.. kasihan proton. its not even their idea n still got bashed!
but honestly ppl, they’re jz trying to sell cars .. im amazed jz how proton willing to accomodate them!
@johanbey
Thats sarcasm at a whole different level. Great job! That’s a good laugh
I thought you were pretty convincing until you said Malaysia is an “Islamic Country”. You lost your ploy there. You got me till there.
ezralimm said,
November 28, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
who coined the term?
shallow shallow…
————
It is according to MD SZ is from Iran. If swallow, how ocme they are in the midst of developing necleur facilities for peaceful purposes according to them and for making nucleur bomb according to US. Are they shallow?
johanbey, I think the term Islamic Car is a total disrespect to Islam as a religion itself..as simple as that…but I respect your views..
forget what Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas said !
do not over react on marketing word.. & do not do deep thinking on basic proposal such as ‘Islamic Car’. It may call other word when it launch.. maybe with word ‘i’ like 1.6i after that to differentiate the package. Big name like Casio & LG has Islamic Product even Microsoft has Islamic Product.
Dear all,
When Columbus state the world is round, church laughed
When Einstein wanted to capture light in a glass, scientist laughed
When Evian wanted to sell bottled water, investor laughed
When Phil Knight (Nike) wanted to sell shoes, Adidas laughed
When Ramli wanted to sell burger, bank laughed
When Tony wanted to start an airline, MAS laughed
Go ahead and laughed. I dont see you making millions in making “Halal Cars”.
Those are different scenario bro. We’re not laughing here…..
Just dont label it. Sell it, advertise that this car have this and that features for muslim. I like the idea of having a compass directing to makkah. I would love to have a special compartment for my sejadah. make it simple and clear, and does not provoke anyone, like what LG did. My non Muslim friend would not hesitate to buy it as well. If it is labeled as Islami car, I guess none of them will ever ride in it.
r u putting kubah masjid as the car roof? hahahaha odd and stupid lor
no need for an islamic car…be a good muslim really follow the pillars of islam..no need for a car to be a good muslim
K.A.R.R, agree wit u
haha i agree to u aslo K.A.A.R,
Car looks alim but drive like syaitan x guna hahaha..
Intention is everythin’..
Alim looks car but drive like syaitan, no use laa..hehehe
ermm…???
horrbile car, don disgrace islam
desperate car companies like Proton would do anything stupid to gain stupid customers in the ME.
i think we should remember that Iran was the one who proposed such an idea.
but proton is to blame, too, for jumping to such opportunities without really figuring out the consequences.
silly idea, really…
stupid nation stupid carmaker
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/Letters/2096746/Article/index_html
STUPID IDEA!