Burn al-Kitab Day on Jan 27?

A flyer from a previously unknown group urges Muslims to torch Malay language Bibles this Sunday.

PETALING JAYA: A Christian movement has come across a flyer in Penang calling on Muslims to burn Malay language Bibles at a gathering at the Bagan Luar Municipality field in Butterworth this Sunday.

Bishop Ng Moon Hing, executive secretary of the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), said a copy of the flyer was found in the mailbox of a Christian priest residing in Butterworth.

The flyer, printed by a group called Pasukan Bertindak Anti Bible Bahasa Melayu (Anti-Malay-Bible Action Force), urges Muslims to join in the “Malay Bible burning festivities” scheduled at 10am.

“Our children and grandchildren will end up being apostates if you want to wait for our impotent government to act,” reads the flyer.

“To Muslims who have copies of al-Kitab, bring them over to make our Bible burning session merrier.”

It says Sunday has been chosen for the burning because “that’s the day Christians go to church to pray to their gods.”

Ng described all religious scriptures as “valuable” and said no one should threaten to desecrate a holy book in any manner.

“CFM abhors this action, which was first proposed by Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali,” he said. “Now this group has decided to make it a reality on a sacred day for Christians.”

He said Christians were peace loving people who would always strive to bring harmony and peace to multi-religious Malaysia.

He alleged that extremist groups planning such “vile acts” were doing so only to score political brownie points.

“We pray that good sense will prevail during these trying times. May the Lord confound the plans made by these irresponsible people.”

Perkasa’s Ibrahim, in calling for the burning of Bibles last Saturday, alleged that Christians were provoking the Muslims by using Arabic religious terms in their scripture.

The call drew brickbats from both opposition and Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties.