Bishop slams Hasan's 'inherently absurd' claims

Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing described as “inherently absurd” the latest round of claims by Selangor state minister for religion Dr Hasan Ali who said that a Christian organisation, with foreign assistance, is actively subverting the faith of Muslims.

“You can infer the patent absurdity of his claims from what he says is the modus operandi of these Christian subversives,” said the head of the Catholic Church in the Melaka-Johor diocese.

“Hasan says these Christian missionaries don Islamic garb to pray with Muslims in their places of worship in order to entice them away from their faith,” noted the bishop.

“How on earth can someone who is supposed to be a Christian invoke prayers that oftentimes implicitly deny the divinity of Christ and remain not only a Christian, but one who is proselytising for the faith?” argued Bishop Paul Tan.

“It’s inherently absurd, more so because Christians are expressly forbidden from using methods that are false towards ends they view as noble.

“Only Machiavellians, communists and fascists believe that the end justifies the means. Christians cannot employ means that are false to achieve ends that are noble.

“For them there can be no inconsistency between means and ends,” was the Jesuit-trained prelate’s argument against Hasan’s latest attempt to raise the bogey of Christian proselytisation of Muslims.

'Not one iota of proof'

“As usual, Hasan has not disclosed the identity of the Christian organisation he says is actively subverting the faith of Muslims.

“He continues to persist in a campaign of innuendo and insinuation he began with his claim last August that Christian proselytisation of Muslims occurred at Damansara Utama Methodist Centre (DUMC)

“So far, not one iota of proof has been adduced for that claim. But that has not given the man pause,” said Bishop Paul Tan.