Malaysia and Singapore ban black metal concerts amid complaints from countries’ Christian communities
- Such bans in either country are nothing new. Malaysia targeted the genre once before in 2001, while Singapore moved against slam-dancing in 1993
- But in Malaysia, such moves have usually been attributed to complaints from the conservative Muslim lobby in the past
Liew Kai Khiun, a researcher of transnational popular culture flows at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said connections between Christian groups across the causeway linking both countries may have motivated the Malaysian council to speak up.
Christians accounted for nine per cent of the 28.4 million people living in Malaysia as of the 2010 census, in comparison to 18 per cent of Singapore’s population of 5 million that same year. Some of Singapore’s wealthiest and most influential citizens are Christian, such as Philip Ng, the city state’s richest man and a devout Anglican.
Christians in Asia: persecuted, oppressed … but keeping the faith
Liew said with Christians being a minority in Muslim-majority Malaysia and secular Singapore, they could only display religious activism in areas such as doctrine, and sexual and public morality.
