An NGO has warned the Malay community that their brethren who may live and pray like a Muslim could really be Christian.
Pertubuhan Muafakat Sejahtera Masyarakat Malaysia secretary-general Abd Karim Omar described this as an "insider movement" where Malay Christians hide their true belief to remain within the Malay community.
He warned that if this trend continues, Malaysia's Christian population, which currently stands at only 9.2 percent, could grow up to 40 percent to match the Muslim population.
He gave an example where Nigeria's Christian population grew from 21.4 percent in 1953 to 49.3 percent, exceeding the Muslim population which only grew from 45.3 percent to 48.8 percent.
"Could this happen to Malaysia?" he asked some 1,000 participants at a seminar entitled "The word 'Allah' and Christology in the Malay Archipelago", which mostly comprise varsity and secondary school students.
However, Karim did not provide any concrete data for his projection on Malaysia’s Christian population.
He quoted former PAS president Yusof Rawa as saying in 1988 that 66,000 Malay Muslims had become apostates and a 2007 statement by Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria which puts that figure at 250,000.
“I do not know the figures in the present day but it is a frightening picture,” he told the seminar at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) at Shah Alam this afternoon.
‘Christians living as Muslims’
To prove his point on the alleged Malay Christian “insider movement”, Karim quoted a 2012 research paper entitled ‘The socio-religious identity and life of the Malay Christians of Malaysia’.
“These Malay Christians do not have a cross in their hopes... Sometimes they even go to mosques so that people will not know they have converted,” he said.
He said the existence of this community is a result of Christian evangelist use of “contextualisation”, a strategy to evangelise people of other religions but integrating elements of their religion and culture to Christianity.
“For Muslims who need to recite two Syahada, the evangelists said all they need is to recite a third one for Isa (Jesus), that is enough, this is like Shiism,” he said.
He added that another example is the Christian insistence to use the word ‘Allah’, while to convert Hindus, the word ‘Iswar’, which is the name of a Hindu deity, is used.
As such, he warned the young crowd to protect their faith from being “stolen” as people lock their cars to prevent theft.
Pertubuhan Muafakat Sejahtera Masyarakat Malaysia secretary-general Abd Karim Omar described this as an "insider movement" where Malay Christians hide their true belief to remain within the Malay community.
He warned that if this trend continues, Malaysia's Christian population, which currently stands at only 9.2 percent, could grow up to 40 percent to match the Muslim population.
He gave an example where Nigeria's Christian population grew from 21.4 percent in 1953 to 49.3 percent, exceeding the Muslim population which only grew from 45.3 percent to 48.8 percent.
"Could this happen to Malaysia?" he asked some 1,000 participants at a seminar entitled "The word 'Allah' and Christology in the Malay Archipelago", which mostly comprise varsity and secondary school students.
However, Karim did not provide any concrete data for his projection on Malaysia’s Christian population.
He quoted former PAS president Yusof Rawa as saying in 1988 that 66,000 Malay Muslims had become apostates and a 2007 statement by Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria which puts that figure at 250,000.
“I do not know the figures in the present day but it is a frightening picture,” he told the seminar at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) at Shah Alam this afternoon.
‘Christians living as Muslims’
To prove his point on the alleged Malay Christian “insider movement”, Karim quoted a 2012 research paper entitled ‘The socio-religious identity and life of the Malay Christians of Malaysia’.
“These Malay Christians do not have a cross in their hopes... Sometimes they even go to mosques so that people will not know they have converted,” he said.
He said the existence of this community is a result of Christian evangelist use of “contextualisation”, a strategy to evangelise people of other religions but integrating elements of their religion and culture to Christianity.
“For Muslims who need to recite two Syahada, the evangelists said all they need is to recite a third one for Isa (Jesus), that is enough, this is like Shiism,” he said.
He added that another example is the Christian insistence to use the word ‘Allah’, while to convert Hindus, the word ‘Iswar’, which is the name of a Hindu deity, is used.
As such, he warned the young crowd to protect their faith from being “stolen” as people lock their cars to prevent theft.
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