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THERE IS NO GOD EXCEPT ALLAH
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Saturday, August 6, 2011

The Illogicality Of It All

By Masterwordsmith

In 1986, the government ban on the use by non-Muslims of the word “Allah”, and three others — “solat”, “Kaabah” and “Baitullah”. By 2009, the High Court allowed the church to use the word, but an appeal from the Home Ministry has left the decision hanging. Post "Allah" controversy, a few churches and a Catholic school were torched and threatened in January last year.

This would have been a non-issue from the start had mutual respect and tolerance been practised. Despite the delicate situation, a few leaders continued to fan the flames of fear raging then. Subsequently, an inter-faith dialogue was held but the status quo remains.

In March '11, the Home Ministry seized 35,100 Malay-language bibles which were released just ahead of the Sarawak state election in April. However, copies in Peninsular Malaysia had to be chopped and marked with a cross and the words “Christian publication”.

Then in May, Penangites were stunned when a meeting between the Penang Chief Minister and Christian leaders was turned into a flaming controversy with ridiculous claims that the participants discussed making Christianity the official religion. Thereafter, Utusan Malaysia went to town. They front-paged two blogs making such a claim. (Read my blog post Truth Please, NOT Distortions of Reality!)Now the whole issue is in the back burner while another highly illogical controversy broke forth.

Last month, the PM went to the Vatican to establish diplomatic ties. On his return, the PM said the Barisan Nasional (BN) government would work with Christians who wished to uphold world peace and harmony as it was committed to the “global movement of moderates”. At Kompleks Bunga Raya, he said, "We wish to tell our friends, the Malaysian Christians . . . if they respect us, we will also respect them,” he told some 200 BN supporters here.


When you don't practise the 1Malaysia policy, talk is cheap.

A few days earlier, Media Prima Bhd was forced to axe a controversial series of Ramadan commercials on its 8TV channel after scathing public criticism and claims that the advertisements were racist and highly insulting in nature. The advertisements depicted a Chinese girl eating greedily and dressed inappropriately in front of Muslims during Ramadan.

Guess who owns Media Prima, which in turn owns 8TV, and other channels like TV3 and TV9? What did they hope to achieve with such advertisements?

Two days ago, during an NGO Harapan Komuniti dinner in appreciation for its volunteers, leaders, supporters and members of the community who have benefited from its work, twenty odd police officers barged into the premises of Dream Centre. They disrupted the dinner and started taking videos and photographs and took down details of the Muslim guests. The dinner was non-religious in nature but held to celebrate the work of non-profit organisation Harapan Komuniti in helping women, children, HIV/AIDS sufferers and victims of natural disasters.

Apparently, the official 'intruders' came without a warrant on a complaint made by somebody but did not explain what it was. No arrest was made but they seized the function’s programme sheets and questioned the dinner organisers and guests. The raid was linked to attempts to preach to Malay Muslims about Christianity.

Public outrage followed. Politicians then played the blame game while Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) secretary-general Rev Hermen Shastri hit out at Selangor’s Islamic religious authorities for “storming” a Petaling Jaya church last night on such flimsy grounds.

1. Is it justified for Jais to conduct its investigations without first checking with the church leaders and worse still, to enter the religious places of other communities and conduct their investigations?

2. Where is respect for the activities and premises of those from other faiths?

3. Isn't the month of Ramadhan supposed to be a month of tolerance? In the Qur'an, Muslims are commanded to fast so that they may "learn self-restraint".

4. Is it wrong for Muslims to be in church grounds? The royalty attended the Prince William's wedding at Westminister Abbey and the PM was at the Vatican. Status quo.

According to Lim Chee Wee, President of the Malaysian Bar Council:

We know of no prohibition in law against Muslims entering the premises of a Christian church, nor of being part of the audience in a thanksgiving event held in such a place, even if such an event were to contain certain religious elements such as prayer and singing. By conducting such a raid, video-recording a part of the event, rummaging and removing the contents of garbage bags and then taking down the particulars of Muslims found in attendance, treating them as though they had somehow broken the law, JAIS has besmirched the good name and sullied the hard-earned reputation of Malaysia and her peoples for multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-faith acceptance.


This action on the part of JAIS, coming so closely after the insensitive public service announcements released by television station 8TV, does not bode well for the future of inter-racial and inter-faith harmony in our country. If, after almost 54 years of independence in Peninsular Malaysia, a state Islamic authority and a national television company can still display a form of arrogant authoritarianism and callous condescension in their actions, then we must collectively ask ourselves where we have failed as a nation. Moderation has increasingly given way to mindless orthodoxy, and those in authority have parted company with common sense.
4. Isn't there freedom of assembly and association as provided by provided Article 10 of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia? It was a multi-racial Thanksgiving dinner attended by 120 guests of all races - a truly 1Malaysia in spirit. What was so bad or wrong about this that warranted a raid? Where is the respect that the PM expounded? Does it only go one way? Does the raid show 'self-restraint' and tolerance? Or does it show insensitivity, ignorance and idiocy?

5. To exacerbate matters, the finger pointing stance of BN and Pakatan leaders have been most disconcerting. According to The Malaysian Insider, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) insists that the continued intolerance of Christians shows that Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s recent diplomatic visit to the Vatican was “a waste of time and resources.” On the other hand, Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers are holding the federal opposition accountable, pointing out that the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) is administered by the PKR-led state government.

Then Selangor state exco and former PAS state leader Dr Hassan Ali who is in charge of Islamic affairs in the state has defended the JAIS raid - a move which has created much confusion and has been perceived as PAS's flip-flop not forgetting how his move has eroded confidence in PR. Mind you - this is during a very crucial pre-election period when all concerned need to close ranks and work hand in hand to make it to Putrajaya!

So what is his true motive? Is he trying to destroy the harmony within the state coalition and disunity among people? You can read Dr Hassan Ali's press statement HERE.

From 1986 to the present, things have gotten worse - a lot worse! Where do we go from here? Will there be strong leader imbibed with reasoning and intelligence to diffuse and resolve the situation?

Can you continue to stomach such acts of illogicality? Such acts have to be condemned and those who are guilty must be punished. We MUST NOT suffer the nonsense of such blundering buffoonsany longer. Time after time, our senses and intelligence have been assaulted by the continuous outpouring of balderdash from their mouths and illogical action.

The time is NOW or NEVER. With the impending GE, you know what to do. CHOOSE WISELY!

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