Two statues have been removed from the MBI Desaku Park in Padang Meha, Kulim Kedah, following complaints by locals that the figures of winged women were offensive and inappropriate to Muslims.
Park manager Rohana Sharif told New Straits Times that they removed the statues following an order from the district office, as well as the Kulim Municipal Council. The district office has now requested a list of erected statues, as well as a submission for approval of the state mufti for any new statues to be built.
The park has been a visitor attraction since its inception, with five landscape themes of Holland, Disneyland, Bali, Cactus Gardens, and Japan. The different worlds have varying statues, some of Snow White and Spiderman. The offending winged women were removed from the Balinese section.
Bali, a popular tourist destination island in Indonesia, is predominantly Hindu.
Earlier this week, Indonesia experienced their own statue backlash, after a larger-than-life statue of Guan Yu, equal parts ancient Chinese general and deity, was covered in a white cloth due to outcry from the Muslim community in East Java.
Good to know that after millennia of existence, statues still have the power to leave people shook.
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