1.“Herald Malaysia Online”(http://www.heraldmalaysia.com)
Mosul: Christian buildings attacked, Church of Saint Ephrem levelled, 27 November 2009
Ministry of the Poor opens Don Bosco centre
Ｍosul : Explosive devices were detonated this morning at two Christian sites in Mosul, the Church of Saint Ephrem and the Mother House of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine. At present, there are no reports about casualties but the church was entirely destroyed. The convent also suffered damages but it is not known how much. Christian sources in Mosul told AsiaNews that the “attack was like a Mafia warning”, a message to Christians “to get out of the city.”
At around 10 am, a commando of about ten gunmen stormed the Church of Saint Ephrem in the al-Jadida neighbourhood, in a new section of the city. Attackers told everyone inside to leave and then calmly proceeded to place explosives around the building. When they were set off the whole structure was levelled. The same thing happened to the Bishop’s Palace in December 2004.
According to early reports, no one among the faithful was hurt in the blast.
After the first operation, the attackers moved to the Mother House of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine, where a second explosion was heard around 10.30 am. For the moment, there are no details about the damages inflicted on the building or any casualties among the nuns.
Sources in Mosul told AsiaNews that the attacks were the work “of a group of about ten people who acted calmly.”
The area is under the control of Sunni Arabs and had not seen any major act of violence until now.
“We received threats and episodes of intimidation but nothing major,” a Christian source said.
This morning’s attacks resemble “the series of attacks that hit Mosul’s Christian community in the past.”
Local sources suggest that Kurds might be involved in the action in order to get Christians out of the area and into the “Nineveh Plain.”
“There is a lot of fear among the people because those who carried out the attack acted unimpeded and without opposition,” the anonymous source said.
In fact, it is more than just fear. A sense of “anger and disillusionment against the local and national governments is growing. It is the latest attack and latest disillusionment for Christians who feel abandoned.”
(Courtesy : AsiaNews)
2. The Christian Post (http://sg.christianpost.com)
Malaysian Catholics Called to Resist Islamisation, 9 December 2009
by Nathanael Ng (nathanael@christianpost.com)
A bishop of the Catholic Church in Malaysia has urged Catholics to stand their ground in their fight for the rights of non-Muslims, warning that many attempts have been made to Islamise the nation.
Speaking in an interview with UCA News where he was asked how the Church should respond to the perceived trend, Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing encouraged the Church to push for equality in dialogue with all parties.
He cited the Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) which he co-founded in the 1980 as an example of how non-Muslims have joined hands across religious lines to protect their rights.
Catholics, he noted, form slightly more than 3.5 percent of the population. Together with the rest of the Christians, they still form only nine percent.
In contrast, the MCCBCHST brings together around 40 percent of the total population.
“This way we will not be singled out as being against the Muslims, and we make our voice louder along with the others,” he said.
The bishop of Melaka-Johor added that the Church should participate in dialogue at all levels including ‘dialogue of life’ and intellectual and spiritual dialogue, and be open to dialogue with others, particularly Muslims.
MCCBCHST has “approached government authorities to put right what is wrong” and received a hearing most of the time, “but no action has been taken to right what is wrong”, he said.
Bishop Tan, who was participating in the recent Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences symposium on Religious life held in Hua Hin, Thailand, had spoken about the ongoing controversy surrounding the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Malaysian Christians and various aspects of Islamisation.
Concerning the ban on non-Muslims using the word, the church leader said: “No one has the right to forbid its usage, and it is part of the national language. It is a pre-Islamic word. All the Arab Christians and Indonesian Christians use the word ‘Allah.’ Why should Malaysia forbid it?”
The government has reportedly confiscated 15,000 Malay-language Bibles because they contain the word ‘Allah’. Herald, the national Catholic weekly, has also been embroiled in a dispute with authorities over the use of the word in its Malay section.
Islamisation, as Bishop Tan explained, is “a long-term plan in which Islam, with all that it entails, should gradually seep into the life of Malaysians – Muslims and non-Muslims”.
Among the instances he raised were the automatic conversion of children under the age of 18 years when one parent converts, the taking of dead bodies of people whom the Islamic department claims have converted, and the case of a professing Hindu woman whose marriage to a Hindu man the Registrar of Marriages refuses to register because it claims she is a Muslim.
(End)
