My Take | Foreign tourists posing for naked selfies show disrespect

It's generally more acceptable to offend people of your own religion, just like it's ok to tell jokes about your own race. However, notwithstanding, being offensive to other people's religions and other races is usually not a good idea.

There is now an unfortunate trend among young foreign tourists to pose for naked selfies while visiting sacred grounds and temples. Many take that as a joke and may even consider it an act of daring. But the locals inevitably find it offensive, not to say illegal.

The latest incident has a Canadian hiker, said to be a Hong Kong resident, among a group of tourists posing for pictures in the nude atop Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu. Having posted the offending pictures online, Emil Kaminski added insult to injury by calling Masidi Manjun, the minister for tourism, culture and environment in the East Malaysian state of Sabah, an "idiot" and "a dildo".

Media reports said about 10 foreign tourists broke away from their entourage of 27 and stripped naked for pictures on Mount Kinabalu last month. A mountain guide tried to stop them but they reportedly called him "stupid" and told him to "go to hell".

The act has angered locals who consider the mountain a sacred site because it is the final resting place of their ancestors.

Nude selfies in sacred places have become a Western tourist trend. Early this year, two US sisters were arrested in Cambodia after taking nude selfies inside an Angkor Wat temple. They were each fined US$250 and banned from visiting the country for four years. Less than two weeks before, three French male tourists were caught taking naked pictures inside the same temple.