Church group to Najib: Practise what you preach

A national body representing the evangelical Christian community has urged Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to practise what he has preached on moderation, following a threat to burn the Malay-language Bible.
    
National Evangelical Christian Fellowship chairperson Reverend Eu Hong Seng pointed out that Najib had recently initiated the global movement of the moderates.

“Such a noble cause deserves our support. It is time we put into practice in our own country what we have so loudly preached to the world,” Eu said in a statement today.

He stressed that the church in Malaysia, though concerned, is in no way intimidated by the purported event in Butterworth, Penang, at 10 am on Sunday. 

“We are a peace-loving people who will continue to pray for the well being of our great country,” he said. 

“This unfortunate proposal ... serves as a serious reminder to all Malaysians to be more measured in our responses the next time we hear of some unreasonable people in the West wanting to burn other people's scriptures, because we too have our fair share of unreasonable people.”

According to Christian Federation of Malaysia chairperson, Bishop Ng Moon Hing (left), a church in Butterworth had received a ‘notice' about the purported event. Members of the public were invited to attend.

Rev John Kennady of St Marks Anglican church lodged a police report at the Butterworth police station at 3pm yesterday.

The 'notice' emerged just days after Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali called on Muslims to burn the Malay-language Bible following claims that copies had been distributed to Muslims outside a school compound.

Penang Perkasa has denied any connection with the purported event and said it supports a probe, while Ibrahim has said he hadnot meant to offend the Christian community.