Tun M: Mixed marriages strengthens unity... nope, I don't think so.

Dr M says that mixed marriages can strengthen national unity.

Cross-cultural marriages can strengthen national unity, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said. The former prime minister said different cultural backgrounds should not be a barrier for couples to tie the knot.

"Islam accepts anyone of diverse upbringings and traditions. And, it does not stop Muslims from practising their own cultures so long as it is within the scope of the Islamic teaching."

Dr Mahathir, who is the Islamic Welfare Organisation (Perkim) president, said although majority of the Muslims in Malaysia were Malays, it did not mean that the converts must discard their culture and embrace the Malay ways.

"We also should not assume that converts, who hold on to their culture, have a weak grasp of Islam."

My dear Tun, you have only addressed half the barrier, and it's the much less significant half at that.

The biggest barrier to mixed marriages will always be religion. And it's not about non-Muslims disliking the idea of embracing Islam. It's about non-Muslims being forced to embrace Islam as a pre-condition for embracing their significant others.

It's the fact that NOBODY likes being forced. And it's the fact that the love between 2 people is being used as vile leverage to subjugate the pre-existing religous convictions of the non-Muslim half of the couple.

As long as the current one-sided mandatory conversion rules are in place, mixed marriages will be seen as a tool of religious domination of Muslims over the non-Muslims... strengthening the hand of disunity rather than the opposite.

It's like what Henry Ford supposedly said about the Model T: "You can have it in any colour, as long as it's black." So Tun, let's quit the bullshit about mixed marriages being fair and free, ya.