Stopping those who spew hate in the name of religion


COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
May 07, 2014

If there are any police officials still interested in being honest brokers and if the rule of law means anything anymore in Malaysia, a whole clutch of speakers at yesterday’s seminar on the Allah word and Christianity should be arrested and charged with sedition.

In some other countries, they would be charged with hate crimes because hate is what they were trying to make Malaysians do. Hate Christians and hate Malaysians of the Christian faith.

One of the speakers talked about the number of Christians overtaking Muslims in this country – a scenario as remote as Datuk Ibrahim Ali or Datuk Zulkifli Noordin becoming pastors.

But hey, why let the absence of facts get in the way of a nice yarn? Forget about the much higher birth rate among Muslims compared with non-Muslims and forget about the empirical evidence which shows that more Christians have been forced or duped into converting to Islam in Sabah and rural communities.

This speaker used the same discredited figures once used by Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria, who cited an anonymous study that up to 250,000 Muslims in Malaysia had become apostates, including 100,000 who converted to Christianity.

The speaker conveniently forgot that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said last month that 4,520 individuals embraced Islam in just four years between 2008 and 2012, according to the Federal Territories Religious Department’s (Jawi) records.

The despicable thing is the fact that the intention yesterday was to stoke hatred towards Christians and introduce religious strife where it did not exist.

Students and ordinary Muslims are being taught to hate their fellow Malaysians, despite a peaceful co-existence from the day Malaya and later Malaysia was formed.

The book titled ‘Obligation to preserve the sanctity of the name Allah’ seeks to explain why non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah. It was distributed at yesterday’s forum at UiTM – The Malaysian Insider pic, May 7, 2014.The book titled ‘Obligation to preserve the sanctity of the name Allah’ seeks to explain why non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah. It was distributed at yesterday’s forum at UiTM – The Malaysian Insider pic, May 7, 2014.Surely that is more dangerous than the late Karpal Singh stating a legal position or Batu MP Chua Tian Chang stating his intention to bring down Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Or that Seputeh MP Teresa Kok had produced a parody video.

So why isn’t the police taking action? What is it waiting for?

Is Malaysia a country where the authorities see nothing wrong about a group of people maligning another faith in the name of their own religion? Or should we even be surprised at the lack of action?

After all, a group of men were allowed to parade with a cowhead to protest the construction of a Hindu temple in Shah Alam in 2009, knowing full well that the animal is considered sacred to Hindus.

They were fined paltry sums and only one served a week’s jail.

Can we hope for stronger action this time around against those who spew hate and speak ill of other faiths? Or is moderation just a convenient buzzword to impress visiting dignitaries and counterparts in other countries?

Putrajaya must draw a line of what is acceptable and not unacceptable. No one should insult a religion just to show how superior their own faith is. Religion is supposed to unite people, not divide them.

And those who use it to divide people should be arrested, charged and convicted for bringing their own faith into disrepute and Malaysia into chaos. The police can start with those at the forum in UiTM yesterday. – May 7, 2014.

  1. #1 by Bigjoe on Wednesday, 7 May 2014 - 9:37 am

    Here is the thing. The origin of the words lie “power sharing”, “moderation” and “compromise” from UMNO/BN was justified that groups like these would be embraced and dealt with. It was the justification of the the sledgehammer known as the NEP and the “Islamisation” program of Mahathir including the destruction of the Constitution and the judicial system

    Several decades on, these groups have only gotten worst – THE NIGHTMARE of predicted by original critics of NEP and Islamisation program. What was all the “power sharing”, “moderation” and “compromise” all these DECADES FOR?

    • #2 by cemerlang on Wednesday, 7 May 2014 - 8:40 pm

      You would use anything to get power

  2. #3 by undertaker888 on Wednesday, 7 May 2014 - 9:51 am

    They are the source of the problems. You can’t ask the source to arrest the source.

    They are not keen to uphold the laws. They are more keen to keep you pendatangs in check. Ya, those monkeys are paid to do just that.

  3. #4 by yhsiew on Wednesday, 7 May 2014 - 10:20 am

    Why Terasa Kok is charged with sedition and those speakers who spew hate are not? Why do police practice double standards?

  4. #5 by Bigjoe on Wednesday, 7 May 2014 - 10:57 am

    The answer to stopping these people is not to arrest them but instead to defend those who they spew against – their right to be heard. What need to be stopped is the inevitable violence they will eventually move to, at this juncture unavoidable, all these decades of “moderation” and “compromise” washed down the toilet..

    Violence is no longer avoidable because what they are advocating is pure hallucinations – like drug addicts – and eventually the withdrawal from the hallucinations will crash and like all hallucinants, turn to their mindless worst instinct.

  5. #6 by winstony on Wednesday, 7 May 2014 - 11:41 am

    One of the speakers talked about the number of Christians overtaking Muslims in this country – a scenario as remote as Datuk Ibrahim Ali or Datuk Zulkifli Noordin becoming pastors. – End of quote

    Even if true, does it really matters who has the bigger numbers?
    All religion teaches their adherents to be good and to do good!
    So, whether they are Muslims, Christians, Buddhists or whatever, what difference does it make?
    The problem here is that those who stir up such problems are just trying to use religion to cause trouble.
    Race and religion have never been issues in this country during the early years of our Independence.
    It was only when those who only have their own self interests who are using these to gain brownie points that trouble started.
    The opposition must wise up all Malaysians to the clear and present danger facing this country.
    Counter them and make them impotent!!!

    I

  6. #8 by winstony on Wednesday, 7 May 2014 - 12:17 pm

    Since religion teaches people to be good and to do good, what those who use it to cause trouble is the antithesis of this concept.
    They are a disgrace to all religions, including their own!!!

  7. #9 by narasimam on Wednesday, 7 May 2014 - 11:47 pm

    in the name of religion many crimes have been committed. no religion is perfect or better than the other. lets us practise humanism: A system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth. it is
    Concerned with the interests, needs, and welfare of humans. lets do it.

  8. #10 by boh-liao on Thursday, 8 May 2014 - 5:16 am

    At d way THINGS GO in dis 1DERful land which is regressing with daily controversies n negatif events, OBVIOUSLY eventually, some years fr now, dis 1DERful land will most likely b DIVIDED in2 a few nations –
    1 4 d grp dat wants hudud
    another 4 d ultra-Malay grp dat wants Ketuanan Melayu, butt shaking, & no trep@ssers
    another 4 rakyat who wish 2 live harmoniously as equals with respect + civility n as a multiracial country according 2 d original constitution

    Dis way, each grp 2 its own n can do whatever things it pleases, NO NEED 2 waste negatif energy n time over fundamentally different ways of living, NO NEED 2 say balik dis or dat 2 fellow residents, NO NEED 2 butt shake 2 fellow residents (after all, birds of d same feather flock together)

    Enuf nonsense going on everyday in dis 1DERful land dat is getting apa2 pun boleh (with NO or poor RULE of law), with an elegantly silent peeM, SICKO

    “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

  9. #11 by good coolie on Thursday, 8 May 2014 - 10:53 pm

    Dear Theresa, start practising eating meagre rations of two little fried-fish and too little rice. The special hotel for politicians who don’t have two tongues has a vacancy, and you may have to fill it. Too bad!

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