Perhaps they worship the 3D teapot so beloved of early graphics rendering demos?

The sad face 'cos if Islam is as good as they claim then they wouldn't need to worry about apostasy.

So Malaysia doesn't feel the need to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html )

"Article 18:- Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

So we should immediately take this wonderful idea from Sharia and send to jail anyone who "converts" from atheism (or agnosticism, I'm a fair guy....) to any of the Sky Fairy religions.

I await the flames....!

Since the early '70s I too have worshipped the Flying Teapot, guided by the Guru Banana Ananda I have chanted the mystic words "Banana, Manyana, Nirvana" as I listened to the heavenly sounds. Support this woman by calling down the Pothead Pixies to rain down tea-leaves on the heads of her incarcerators. May Zero the Hero rescue her with the help of Lawrence the Alien.

All good IT folks enjoy a warming cuppa at any appropriate point of the day (I usually always have one next to me from 9:20am until 5pm)... Remind me to not jobseek for a Malaysian IT position!

She must be an electrician

The IT angle is....

Are you ready for it? Remember no chair throwing....

IT was a 2 story teapot!

Hello?!?!? A 2 story tall teapot!

And now for something completely different...

**ps. you guys need a "Duh!?!" category of comment for those ohhh-sooo-obvious survey results.**

... of detritus which litters The Register's front page.

thats like saying Hitler had freedom of worship except....

As Dawkins says "Its a child of Muslim parents not a Muslim child."

and the same applies to any religion.

they'd have to worship a coffeepot

I thought the Koran-approved punishment for apostasy was death?

Why are they interfering with the Word of Allah?

Also, I take it this isn't Russell's Teapot-worshipping cult? ;-)

"The sad face 'cos if Islam is as good as they claim then they wouldn't need to worry about apostasy."

Actually, way I see it, it has nothing to do with the Islam. People "convert" from all sorts of things to all sorts of other things, for various reasons ranging from pragmatic to delusional. I have a coworker who switched from worshipping Linux and Tux and being a foaming-at-the-mouth Linux zealot, to basically "Linux is crap for idiots, OpenBSD is the One True OS, and Theo de Raad is its prophet." Some people "convert" from being western citizens with human rights and stuff, to supporting some deranged religion and terrorism. Etc. No matter how good an idea (religious or otherwise) is to you or me, someone out there will renounce it for something else.

The real (bad) joke is claiming to grant freedom of religion while having apostasy laws. People get baptized/declared/whatever by their parents to some religion, before they can even understand what that means at all, and then they get threatened with long jail sentences if they dare renounce that religion. It seems to me that most of the population effectively has zero freedom there. Someone else decided for them what they have to worship, and are threatened with nasty stuff if they even think of making their own choice.

I'm sorry, but that's not freedom of religion in any form or shape. That's just an uneasy concession to the western colonial powers along the lines of, "Ok, ok, we won't try to kill you for being non-muslims." To their own natives, effectively they didn't grant any freedom, and aren't going to grant any.

A wee cup of tea there imam, achh go on. A cup of tea to warm the soul? are you sure imam, i can't tempt you, no? achh go on go on go on go on go on....

This cult has to be stopped at all cost. Before long the custard cream executive force will be on the streets, the bourbon cream martyrs brigade will strike and the coffee gangstas will take to the mattresses!

A dark time is brewing....

(oh look 3 o'clock, time for a tea break)

Were they worshipping Russell's Teapot? Now that I could respect, it has so many parallels... it would be so just-like-scientology if that philosophical straw-man had accidentally mutated into a real religion.

Didn't they have split a while back with one faction remaining to worship the teapot and another looking for the inner meaning of the teapot and discovering that the only truth was in the power of the pyramid teabag?

However, they in turn were persecuted by fundamentalists who swear on the infallible tea strainer.

Unfortunately there is no end in sight of mediation between the milk first and milk last acolytes.

Islam as always shaken and stirred by teapots teddys etc. etc.

Flame to burn non islamists

I can't find an online reference to this story (except on El Reg itself) and can't find any web presence for the Malaysian Star. So, let me be the first to say...

Pics or it didn't happen!

I was in KL about a year ago and I remember reading a comment in the Straights Times while I was there; it was reporting on a conference about apostasy that had just taken place; the keynote speaker said the death penalty for apostasy subscribed under Islam was not suitable FOR THE MOMENT (my caps). I nearly choked on my cornflakes as I sat in a 21st century city reading about people discussing killing people for their beliefs (or lack of them) just around the corner.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/04/wteapot104.xml

Reckon i found another link Chris! :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2008/03/04/teapot/teapot03.jpg

PIX!

Why oh why oh why did you allow commenting on this one?

It was obvious, wasn't it, that the Reg's oh-so-witty readership would jump on this as *yet another* opportunity to declare religious people as mad, stupid, backward savages.

These comments may hold some weight if they weren't merely braindead regurgitations of the hay from *other people's strawmen*.

If the militant atheist brigade want to show their intellectual superiority, I urge them to post something that is genuinely intellegent.

Until then, you just look like members of yet another Cult of the Great Truth.

frankly the only "sin" here is showing respect to that weak dunk-bag brew instead of manly coffee from Colombia or that ferocious stuff you can get in Egypt. Grind it, boil it, filter out the worst of the grounds with your teeth.

Though since America is supposed to be the only intolerant nation in the world, we harass the tea drinkers at work here something fierce. haven't arrested them though.

Or is this less a religious matter and one of Corporate Oppression? Starbucks in collusion with the government to force double-tall skinny half-caffs onto the tea-drinking indigenous population?

Where's the outrage? Oh yah, it's an islamic nation, with good ties to the direct descendants of Mohammed and the Royal Saud. Therefore it's a "good thing".

...where is the Paris angle? C'mon Lester!! The people need to know!!

I choosse Paris as my avatar, because I can.

.... the teapot is obviously left over from the 2-mile high statue of Arthur Dent.....

"I can't find an online reference to this story (except on El Reg itself) and can't find any web presence for the Malaysian Star. So, let me be the first to say..."

It was in the Daily Telegraph this morning, with a picture of the teapot, and the rubble left behind after its demolition. Perhaps the teapot was unsafe, or the cult did not have planning permission. Nonetheless it's not a great advert for Malaysia. What could be more harmless, and more English, than worshipping a giant teapot? It's like something from an absurdist British science fiction novel.

There was a time when the Royal Navy would be asked to send gunboats to any nation that desecrated England's national drink. What next, is Malaysia planning to demolish the Giant Sacred Cricket Stumps of the Bow-Tham sect?

You know, Thor would smite that teapot worshipper with mighty Lightning bolts! and so would Zues!

Im sure Hera would just curse her..though, Then again, Mars would have us go to war ,(GWB) beware!

Pluto and Hades, would tell her to go to hell Im sure! but not sure Satan wouldn't be good wtih that, cause shes..

...COMPLETY HARMLESS! people worldwid need to lighten the FRAK UP! (YEAH its a BSG reference.. got something to say about it ... do yah HUH!)

We americans are heavily armed for a reason... we are nuts.. but look around.. we're also free to BELIEVE anything we want! even GWB..

Hey soon as we find mountains of oil under Malaysia.. we'll be there to set this woman free.. COUNT ON IT!..

HAT COAT, and NUCULAR... weapons to go.. thanks..

Having lived in Malaysia i can tell you its a strange place. Freedom of religion and belief does exist for everyone except ethnic Malays (there are 4 main ethnic groups in Malaysia - Ethnic Malays about 50-60% of the population, Ethnic Chinese - 20-30%, Ethnic Indians - 10-15%, Indigineous Malaysians - 5%) Ethnic Malays are by law born Muslims and it is illegal for them to change religion.

Law in Malaysia is a 2 tiered thing, A form of Sharia Law (which is relatively modern and advanced, not Saudi Medieval style Sharia Law) is the governing law for the Ethnic Malays, and a seperate Common Law exists for everyone else. Naturally this gets really complicated when something takes place where malays & non-malay's are involved and im not going to go into that here.

When i was living there back in April there was a case going on where a malay woman was fighting in the courts to be recognised as a christian and not a muslim. This was rejected and she was imprisoned for apostasy (and received MULTITUDES of death threats).

Quite frankly any religion that fears people leaving the religion so much that it imprisons or murders them for trying obviously does not have a great deal of confidence in its own ability to keep people in worship by anything other than fear! Speaks to me of desperation, no?

Individual human rights has never been a particularly strong Malaysian virtue.

The problem may be that 'recognising differences' ( or some may call it downright discrimination ) is constitutionalised. Ask a Malaysian. Don't take my word for it.

In a multi-ethnic population, this is very tricky indeed.

There is a preferred ethnic/racial group, the Malay, which is Muslim by faith. Which is why the laws tend to favour Muslims in said country.

I am fairly surprised but this dodgy bit of the constitution was not questioned at the formation of the country which obviously led to a degree of marginalisation of the other existing groups from the outset.

What is even more surprising is apparently little was done about this in subsequent elections. Whether this is due to downright suppression by the ruling party ( many believe this ) and/or apathy on parts of others I do not fully know or understand.

What I do know is this: this ruling ethnic group is now so proportionally large ( > 50% of the population) it would seem any attempt to reverse this is ... difficult.

There is now no hope for example of a non-muslim to ever run for prime minister in this country the way it is now. The dominant ruling party has NEVER changed.

However, what is fortunate is that Malaysia is not fully your typical muslim/arab state. Within this group of Muslims there are moderates as there are fundamentalists and it would appear, at least for now, moderation is the status quo, sensibly so, as significant progress would be otherwise impeded.

Make no mistake. Despite what people may tell you, Malaysia is not a country free of discrimination. There are 2 tiers of citizenship there, it is clearly there in the constitution.

It is also not a religiously 'free' state. If you are not a Muslim expect anything from minor inconveniences to apparent overt discrimination. And if you become a Muslim it would seem the only way to unbecome one is to leave the country, as this case clearly illustrates.

There has been no change in the ruling political party or body since inception - in a sense it is somewhat like a mild somewhat benign dictatorship.

Nevertheless economically it has done fairly interestingly. Despite what appears unappealing, there are lessons abound to be learnt here.

Truth be told, the whole history of the area is interesting, and if you're Aussie you would want to learn about your neighbours. I have spent some time there. This is how I know what I know.

But don't take my word for it. Ask a Malaysian. Or better yet go there and see for yourselves. Good holiday lots of sun, exchange rates in your favour, food is 'good' (this is arguable) and the place is 'mostly harmless'.

Hardware is cheap and you can get 'cough' 'cough' software...

The only possible IT angle is if you can look it up online to find out when the teapot has tea in it so you know if you can get a cup or have to wait - similar to the old coffee pot monitor at MIT I believe?

Treason isn't a capital offence in the UK. I'm sure it is in many places around the planet, but not here dear chap.

Are you related to the many Luther Blisset's involved in some rioting in Italy many years ago? Or an entirely different branch?

After reading this, I do fancy a nice cup of tea...

"It was obvious, wasn't it, that the Reg's oh-so-witty readership would jump on this as *yet another* opportunity to declare religious people as mad, stupid, backward savages."

It's a target rich environment, who could resist?

"If the militant atheist brigade want to show their intellectual superiority, I urge them to post something that is genuinely intellegent."

Ok, how about; "There's nothing wrong with religion - as long as you don't do it public and wash your hands afterwards..."

aManFromMars has just explained a whole lot about his (or her) posts.

It all makes sense now!

The Star website news section is here: http://thestar.com.my/news/nation/. I can't find anything about this though. I do recall, however, that the giant teapot, or at least a giant teapot, was demolished a couple of years ago, and forty-odd people (or forty odd people) were sent for religious 're-education'.

Someone above mentioned regime change: we have a general election this weekend, and the word on the street is that it could be nasty - I'm certainly not looking forward to going to the pub for the football on sunday. Bloody Barisan Nasional flags everywhere, although DAP, an opposition chinese party, are pretty strong in my part of KL.

Fun & Games coming, I think...

The coat's the one with the tea-stains, AC for good reason

... in all it's infantile glory.

Oh, and I think you'll find that it's "2-storey" teapot, not "2-story"

" Ok, how about; "There's nothing wrong with religion - as long as you don't do it public and wash your hands afterwards..." "

My point proven quite nicely.

Science is about rational debate. Snide comments do nothing to encourage debate.

What is it that atheists dislike about religion?

People live in faith -- which often means unquestioning ignorance.

Their faith is "truth", everyone else is lesser beings -- heathens, infidels, heretics.

Yet people who couldn't split an atom, magnetise a box of iron filings or buffer a weak acid solution willingly accept everything scientific as truth and decry everyone who disagrees with them as lesser beings -- ignorant dimwits.

If you truly believe in science, if you truly believe in cold rationality, you wouldn't be so emotive. You would believe in educating, and as such you would rationally be forced to accept that education requires buy-in from both the teacher and the learner, and that no student was ever motivated by the words "You're wrong, and you're a grotesquely ugly freak!"