The far-reaching consequences of the Lina Joy case, which was reported in over 1,000 foreign media in the first 48 hours of the judgment, and the last-minute cancellation of the “Building Bridges” Islam-Christianity Interfaith Conference in May will feature on the first day of the Parliamentary question time on Monday.

I will be raising both issues during question time on Monday when asking the Prime Minister what had been done to repair the damage to Malaysia’s international reputation as a model multi-religious nation with the last-minute cancellation of the “Building Bridges” Islam-Christianity Inter-faith Conference in early May.

Members of Parliament regardless of political party should come forward in the forthcoming parliamentary meeting to ensure that on the occasion of the 50th Merdeka anniversary of the nation, religion should become a positive force for nation-building in promoting inter-racial and inter-religious understanding, goodwill and harmony instead of becoming the reverse.

It must be a matter of concern to all Malaysians that religious polarization of Malaysians is increasingly a major threat to nation building in the past decade, unless the first three decades of nationhood when the problem of religious polarization was quite unheard of.

What has gone wrong. Why has religious polarization become worse instead of better, especially when the Islam Hadhari advocated by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is to promote justice, integrity and harmony.

Among the questions which I will be raising in forthcoming Parliament are: Read the rest of this entry »