Christians protest ‘Allah house’ billboards, want EC action

An anti-Christian billboard is pictured at an undisclosed location.KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 ― Pictures of provocative election campaign billboards painting churches as usurpers of “Allah” have spread online and sparked a storm among Christians as political parties and their supporters appear to pull out all stops in their desperate sprint for Putrajaya with polls four days away.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) issued a strongly-worded statement today recording their outrage at what they call a “despicable and heinous” anti-Christian message on election campaign boards and demanded the Election Commission act swiftly to douse the sparks of such religious fear-mongering from catching fire once more.

“These fears are real given the recent history of Church burnings and threats to burn the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia.

“The message pits one community (Muslims) against Christians by spreading fear through scare tactics using the issue of ‘Allah’ which the High Court had allowed as a right to freedom of religion,” said Rev Eu Hong Seng, chairman of CFM, and its executive committee.

Alongside the statement, the umbrella body representing 90 per cent of churches nationwide sent pictures of two billboards with the message asking in Malay: “Do you want to see your grandchildren praying in Allah’s house” and lower down the boards, “If we allow Allah to be used by churches”.

Pictures of churches were pasted on the billboards.

The Malaysian Insider understands the CFM is tapping its extensive network of contacts to pinpoint the location of such billboards.

Word has been circulating that one of the billboards was planted near the Lumut naval base in Perak, but checks with locals have not turned up anything.

Johor PKR chief Datuk Chua Jui Meng had also shared a similar picture on his party’s state blog last Saturday and weighed in on its potential to cause harm.

“Clearly, this 13th general election is about the future of all Malaysians.

“If Malaysians fail to choose wisely and go for change after 55 years of corrupt misrule, there is no more future for Malaysians, economically and socially,” Chua, who is also running for election in the Segamat federal seat, had said in his blog post.

A church was torched and several others vandalised in a nationwide attack against places of worship shortly after High Court ruled in 2009 that the catholic Church had the right to publish the word “Allah” to describe the Christian god as the Arabic word was not exclusive to Islam.

Datuk Ibrahim Ali, the founder of the right-wing Malay group Perkasa who is defending his Pasir Mas federal seat in Kelantan for this election, had been reported threatening to set fire to Malay copies of the Christian holy books containing the word “Allah” last year.

In a reminder, CFM said its Bumiputera congregation have been using the word in their prayer and worship for centuries without resistance until recently and castigated those who had put up the billboards to drive a wedge between Muslims and Christians “to gain political points with such blatant misinformation”.

The umbrella Christian body noted too the reports of a surge in poll-related violence such as explosive devices planted near ceramah centres, arson and motorcycle gangs roaming in towns to intimidate and drive off Malaysians from listening to political speeches as the clock counts down to Polling Day this Sunday.

“Christians and all right-thinking Malaysians should rightly condemn such inflammatory election campaign billboards and for that matter all such campaign materials and rhetoric in the run-up to polling day on 5 May 2013.

“We strongly urge the Election Commission to immediately remove such billboards and materials and the authorities to investigate and charge the person or persons responsible,” CFM said.

Christian Malaysians form just under 10 per cent of the country’s 28 million population, but one-third of Sabah and just over half of Sarawak on Borneo Malaysia follow the faith.