A Makassar-based bakery refused a customer’s request to write “Merry Christmas to my family” on a cake because it was not in line with the “principles of (their) religion”, reported the Jakarta Post on Sunday. The news spread on social media, prompting the bakery, Chocolicious Indonesia, to respond on Instagram on Saturday. Previously, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) warned that it would conduct “sweeping operations” to enforce a 2016 fatwa by the country’s Islamic Clerical Council prohibiting business owners from forcing employees to don Christmas attire. Radical notions of Islam are gaining mainstream resonance in Indonesia and Malaysia, a trend that is drowning out more moderate views and voices, writes David Hutt for Asia Times.