Seremban church says council directive to use Malay banners, not about propagating faith

The banner that a Muslim non-governmental organisation found so offensive in Seremban. – Pic courtesy of Isma, April 16, 2014.A Pentecostal church in Seremban said it was following the law to put banners in Bahasa Malaysia to promote an Easter musical, a language that a Muslim rights group believed should not be used by non-Muslims in Malaysia.

Agape Community Church assistant pastor Tan Szet Anne said their promotional material for the annual Easter musical was in Bahasa Malaysia because of a directive by the Seremban city council that banners and posters must be in the national language.

"We have been organising this musical to commemorate Easter with a musical every two years for the past 20 years and there was never an issue.

"And because it is the law which can be found on the local council's website, we put up the posters and banners in Malay," she told The Malaysian Insider.

Tan said church members discovered that posters at the main road leading to their church and banners put up in Seremban had been removed. The Negri Sembilan capital city is 68km south of Kuala Lumpur.

"We are not going to lodge any police report over the matter because all those we want to inform about our musical now know about it.

"The musical is only three days away, and the town folk are familiar with our musical anyway," she said.

Muslim NGO Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) had taken offence to the church using Bahasa Malaysia to promote its Easter musical which will be held at the end of this week.

Isma Seremban chief Zamani Ibrahim had reportedly questioned the church’s use of the national language in its posters to promote the Christian event, suggesting that the promotion, in a public space, was to encourage non-Christians to attend the musical.

Zamani had questioned why Malay was used to promote the event, when Christians are largely from the Chinese and Indian communities.

"The majority of Christians in this country are from the two races. The main language they use among themselves is English. Therefore, it raises questions why the posters promoting the Easter musical are in Malay," he said.

The group has been active in the past year, protesting against human rights and other groups over what it believes are threats to Islam and a conspiracy to convert Muslims into Christians – an offence in Malaysia.

It was recently learnt that Isma was one of the groups that is funded by the federal government, which has ironically been promoting a moderate stance internationally.

Tan, however, said they held “no grudge” against Isma.

"We recognise that it is just a certain section of people who have criticised us but it does not affect us or our musical because we haven't done anything against the law," she said.

Tan said the church would not request for any additional security from the police for the musical event, adding that she hoped there would not be any disturbance.

"We just want to carry on with our musical which is to commemorate Easter," she said.

The church conducts its service in English and Mandarin for it congregation of more than 700 worshippers. The musical is in English.