Datuk Mohammaddin bin Ketapi received Tuesday from a German journalist's question voorgeworpen or his country safe for jewish and gay visitors. Mohammaddin bin Ketapi dodged the question at first and responded offended that he is, therefore, not to Berlin had come, and then the reporter again asked, “or homosexuals are welcome in Malaysia”. Thereupon answered the minister: “Homosexuality? I do not think we have anything like it in our country. The question of whether it is safe or not, I can't answer”.
Malaysia hopes this year to 30 million foreign tourists to welcome. The minister of Tourism put at the opening of the ITB fair in a panegyric about the wonders of nature and the welcoming culture of his country, but his statement was completely overshadowed by his answer about homosexuality.
On Twitter tried Mohammaddin bin Ketapi after another to justify it by saying that he actually had about specific tourist campaigns for the LGBT community. Malaysia has an open policy in welcoming foreign tourists and would “never unnecessary obstacles to pose for our guests based on their sexual preference, religion, or cultural use”. But the country is also sovereign and has his own views on both homosexuality and Israel, he added, and Mohammaddin bin Ketapi hopes that other countries, that sovereignty has to be respected.
Homosexuality is a difficult topic in Malaysia. Sex between partners of the same gender is forbidden, and against homophobia is hardly occurred, on the contrary. Prime minister Mahathir Mohamad called homosexuality ever “is a western value," and called on “those not for us to impose”.