However, the highlight of vernacular school ONLY is unfair. The following are some of the reason:

1. Vernacular school is not exclusively for chinese only. Malay, Indian or any other races can also attend it. The fact is there are quite a number of Malay attended vernacular school each year.

2. Vernacular school have the same curiculum as any sekolah kebangsaan, which also teach its student to be patriotic and such. Malay language also being teach in the school. On top of it, there are various inter school events that allowed student from such school to interact with student from other sekolah kebangsaan as well

If the above reason can’t convinced the writer, then to be fair, the writer should not only pin point the vernacular school, but should also at least pin point the following:

1. madrasah
2. MARA

If one claims that his religion is the best in the world then one sees no enlightenment and wisdom.

One is just a pseudo believer!

This pseudo believer will cause chaos with this religious prejudice.

What is the use of this “best” and “true” religion if it cannot even bring harmony and peace into this world?

Only the religious fanatics will attempt to interefere in the legally-permitted preaching activities of another lawful religion!

Catholicism is in a difficult place with respect to idolatry, isn’t it? I think a lot of Christian churches view some of the Catholic rites as idolatrous. I don’t know how Islam is with regards to idolatry, although I recall they weren’t too keen on cartoons.

It’s easy to rise up on the side of the Catholic Church in this matter, but to the two journalists, some Catholic practices might be indistinguishable from the worst kinds of sin (in their tradition). Some branches of Christianity view many aspects of Catholicism as idolatry – against the Second Commandment (is it 2nd? I’m a bit rusty). Since the Middle Eastern religions share so much in common, I’d imagine Islam might be quite anti-idolatry too.

I realise this is Malaysia, where numbers and how you make your tea can be politicised, but I think the Church could have easily taken this one in its stride. I think “turn the other cheek” and “love one another” would serve them better in the long run. It’s religion, – one group believe one thing very strongly, another believes a different thing very strongly. What scope is there for respect when one group considers the other idol-worshippers who in turn view their competitors in the faith market as “inhumane”?

There’s no scope for empathy between fiercely religious people without also compromising their beliefs. I suspect in a golden age or location – where there’s greater empathy between people of different faiths – that there’s actually less commitment to faith. Views on whether that’s a good or bad thing will vary.

For the people directly involved in the case of the religious disrespect, it’s no doubt upsetting. For the whole of Malaysia, I think there are more immediate and worse things to deal with. I don’t think this case is, in itself, a sign of a terrible lack of empathy between Malaysians. It’s more of an interesting marker at one extreme of the empathy spectrum.

I’ve had a few nights out near here where empathy seems to be as good as any place I’ve ever been to. All flavours of Malaysian seem to be represented, with no discernible cultural distance between them. Maybe places of worship aren’t the ideal place for Malaysian unity to be forged?

The host, to Catholics, IS the body of Jesus Christ so it is very holy and not to be taken lightly. Catholics treat the blessed host with utmost respect and reverence.

The priest and his assistants will say “The Body of Christ” to each and every one when they hand out the host during communion. Yet these two Muslims treated it with disrespect, whether knowingly or unknowingly. They have had advance notice of this solemn ritual.

Yet they received “The Body of Christ” (they called it “roti”) into their mouths and later spat it out, photographed it and published it in their magazine. A disrespect of the highest order. How have they treated this “Body of Christ”? Where is it now? No wonder the Catholics are incensed!! But they, the Catholics, have chosen to remain calm and are trying to resolve this peacefully. If it had happened in another country of another religion, there might have already been demonstrations and the like.

The next issue is that the two muslims have ACCEPTED the Body of Christ after they have been made aware of it. Does this now make them muslim apostates for accepting the Body of Christ? The Sharia Court should haul them up and question them whether they are still Muslims. Perhaps even make them go through a purifying process.

These two “muslims” should immediately return the “Body of Christ” back to a Catholic Church and personally seek forgiveness from the Catholic Church.

It is quite a feat to have it spat out and then photographed within the church as the wafer would soon be soluble inside the mouth within one minute. If that was done it would be seen by other worshippers who should have reacted then rather than wait for the article in Al Islam.

So was the article with an agenda so common done by some Muslims with intention only known to themselves possibly to stir up something.

This bring us to a case in the Sembulan State Mosque in Kota Kinabalu in March 1986 where a converted Muslim Malik Chua made some six red crosses on the concrete entrance board of the mosque hoping that the Christians would get the backlash by an overreaction of the Muslims reacting in like manner for desicration of the Islamic place.

Christians never did that as nobody would go near there as there were few hundred Islamists in demonstration heigthened mood inside the mosque compound for a few days against the PBS’s state government.

The fact is the red markings (feature symbols) are still to be seen despite many times of erasing by whatever materials over those red marks.

The church is open to all especially sinners as welcome by God.

pw: dady picknickers

It is not about empathy. It is about respect.

The Vernacular schools have been unfairly blamed for preventing the students from meeting across the divide of ethnicity and language. Malaysians have no problems in terms of language in communicating. Students in vernacular schools learn the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, and English too. It is the language that they need to understand one another, not the speaker of the language.

It is not true that students in Malaysia are not given the opportunity to be in the same campus, except UiTM which caters only almost entirely to Malays. It has been observed that more than 95% of the students in universities in Malaysia stick together only with friends from the same community groups. They are doing so not because they came from different medium of instructions, but because they are sensitized to speak only the correct words. How would non-Malay from families who have to borrow to send them to the university feels when they see the Malay classmates of similar economic and academic background being provided with scholarships? To them the less they are reminded of the inequality in society caused by the government, the better they would be to concentrate on his study. The divide is not cause by the language, it is by the government that choose to government through clear division of ethnicity.

http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/24354/84/

What will PAS say now? Are they 1 with the people or want to be 1People only?