1. Malaysiakini (http://komunitikini.com)
(1) PM opens religious school in Taman Molek, Johor, 9 March 2012
by Lynn D'Cruz
Some 1000 people attended the official opening of Taman Molek in Johor by Prime Minister, Najib Razak.
Najib, who is on a two day working visit to Johor, congratulated the Johor state government for their successful initiative like the smart partnership between the govenment and private sector.
Present at the function are MB Johor Abdul Ghani Othman, Higher Education Minister Mohd Khalid Nordin, Johor state assembly speaker, Ali Hassan, ADUN Johor Jaya Tan Cher Puk.
(2) No real proof Christians are proselytising Muslims, 4 April 2012
by Steve Oh
Allegations of Christian proselytisation of Muslims in Malaysia have been alarmist and slanderous and have reached heights of absurdity.
The so called 'proof' of Christian proselytisation in the form of three cases of Muslims reverting from Christian conversion back to Islam is not the proof that has been hyped.
If this is all there is to it - three shadowy stories - it shows to what extent the accusers are willing to sacrifice the country's peace for dubious and doubtful ends.
The proof does not justify the hullaballoo created and has all been at the expense of a tolerant and forebearing Christian community, not to mention the harm done to the image of the majority of reasonable, tolerant and fair-minded Muslims in the country, and the reputation of the nation itself as a moderate nation, where all forms of extremist conduct is deplored.
The world if not the nation must be guffawing.
The man who cries wolf too often will hear others crying foul over his divisive ways and he may soon find himself offending the Almighty himself who does not delight in those who slander and falsely accuse the innocent.
No religion, least of all Islam, encourages its followers to create trouble for others, or slander them with false accusations. There must be other ways of political grandstanding and to play to the gallery.
It is time for the government to put a stop to the shenanigans or be criticised for its failure to stem an unhealthy situation.
There has been one false report too many, one after another and you wouldn't want to think such people major in spreading lies as a religious duty.
I was aghast to read reports that Lina Joy was cited as a statistic of the proselytisation. In truth Lina Joy was a woman who fell in love with a Catholic Malaysian of Indian descent who married him and merely wants to live a normal quiet life.
Her husband is a simple and peace-loving man who happens to be of a different religion and Lina Joy chose not only the man but also the same faith. It happens all the time all over the world.
But what was different was she was persecuted and their safety was at risk so they had to flee overseas to carry on with their lives.
No one would have known of Lina Joy had she not been denied her constitutional right to have her Mykad reflect her new religion, a travesty of justice that is well documented. She is not a product of proselytisation as falsely reported.
But she is a victim of injustice, religious persecution and will be an indelible taint on the country's administration of the day.
It is regrettable that the Johor State Education Department has exacerbated the false accusations of Christian proselytisation by holding a seminar for teachers and creating further alarm instead of allaying the false rumour-mongering.
It is improper for the department to conduct such an exercise and abuse its power. If teachers are fed dubious information, even untruths, think of the ramifications.
Teachers should be given accurate and reliable information not be trained to be propagandists for any religion. Teaching is a profession and there ought to be no-go areas even for teachers and religion ought to be one because of the plural religious nature of Malaysian society.
It shows a confusion of roles and lapse of propriety when religion is allowed to spill into the normal curriculum of state school teachers who should not be biased against any religion in the country, albeit Islam being the official religion.
Official religion is not a blank cheque to push religion beyond the meaning of the constitution. Otherwise anyone can be presumptuous and do all sorts of things in the name of religion and imagine the mayhem that results.
It shows that even educated people can fall prey to false rumours and false reports and it can't be good when the education authorities fail to lead by example but have themselves fallen victim to the ideas of the religious instigators.
Ignorance, prejudice and misinformation remain stumbling blocks to the building of a progressive Malaysian state and for every step forward taken by the government, the country is taken back several steps by others in the government itself, so as to leave everyone puzzled as to who is really in control.
Whatever we believe we owe it to one another to respect our humanity. Ultimately we all have to live with one another and there is no benefit in inciting hatred and suspicions.
Ours is not to play God and usurp his role and play judge and jury but to love one another and build up one another regardless of our religion or race or station in life.
It will be a happy day when all Malaysians can mix with one another freely and without fear from those who want to tear the country apart by their negative and destructive ideas and conduct and create divisions between people.
The spread of false accusations of Christian proselytisation of Muslims will only make it difficult for ordinary Malaysians to reach out to one another in times of need or even in daily encounters for fear of being falsely accused.
There is a proper way to resolve religious issues but spreading false rumours, concocting lies and peddling misinformation.
Religion can make someone a saint or a lunatic and for this reason we ought to stem out any activity that incites others to religious bigotry, suspicion and tension resulting in a fragmented society.
"Drive out the mocker and there will be peace," is a pearl of wisdom for the government to reflect on and act in the interest of the nation.
2. Malaysian Insider(http://www.themalaysianinsider.com)
(1) Tsu Koon says ‘Christian threat’ seminar is state government’s prerogative, 5 April 2012
by Shannon Teoh
KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon has said the Cabinet will discuss last weekend’s “Christian threat” seminar in Johor but admitted the state government had the authority to organise the event that required the attendance of over 300 religious school teachers.
The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department told The Malaysian Insider what was important was that the Cabinet’s Special Committee to Promote Inter-Religious Understanding and Harmony had engaged the organisers.
“In a way, it has been resolved, the title has been changed,” the minister in charge of unity and performance management said, referring to the move by the Johor Education and Mufti departments to drop the reference to a “Christian threat” in the seminar’s theme. But when quizzed over the fact that the Mufti Department refused to change the content of the seminar, Koh, who is also Gerakan president, said “that is their prerogative.”
“The interfaith committee chairman has tried to sort out the matter. We will discuss it in Cabinet and see what can be done,” the senator said when told that a Christian minister would ask Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for an explanation.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili told The Malaysian Insider on Tuesday he would raise the matter at tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting to Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, as “the threat is only an allegation.”
The government’s interfaith panel chairman, Datuk Azman Amin Hassan, had said the matter has been resolved after the Johor Education Department agreed to drop the reference to a “Christian threat” from the seminar’s title.
But the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) said Christian ministers should use their office to ensure the Cabinet takes a stand on last Saturday’s seminar after Datuk Seri Najib Razak failed to censure the seminar despite calls from non-Muslim groups for him to “walk your talk” of unity and moderation.
Some 300 religious teachers from Johor national schools attended the seminar entitled “Strengthening the Faith: What is the Role of Teachers?”, which was held in the state capital Johor Baru.
The seminar had attracted controversy among non-Muslims for focusing on the alleged threat of Christianisation to Islam.
But Muslim NGOs insisted that the government was duty-bound to address the “threat of Christianisation,” which they repeatedly profess to be real despite the absence of firm evidence.
In response, Johor dropped specific mention of the “Christian threat” from the seminar originally themed “Pemantapan Aqidah, Bahaya Liberalisme dan Pluralism Serta Ancaman Kristianisasi Terhadap Umat Islam. Apa Peranan Guru?” (Strengthening the Faith, the Dangers of Liberalism and Pluralism and the Threat of Christianity towards Muslims. What is the Role of Teachers?).
But Johor Mufti Department officials said that while the title of the seminar will be changed, the contents and structure will remain unaltered.
The Mufti, Datuk M. Tahrir Kiai Samsudin, also insisted the seminar was for the good of teaching Islam.
Christians form 9.2 per cent of Malaysia’s 28.3 million-strong population.
In recent years, the Christian and Muslim religious communities have been engaged in a tug-of-war over the word “Allah”, with the latter group arguing that its use should be exclusive to them on the grounds that Islam is monotheistic and the word “Allah” denotes the Muslim god.
Christians, however, have argued that “Allah” is an Arabic word that has been used by those of other religious beliefs, including the Jews, in reference to God in many other parts of the world, notably in Arab nations and Indonesia.
Conservative Muslim groups have also accused Christians of attempting to convert Malays, resulting in heightened tension between followers of the two religions.
(2) Bersih nothing to do with faith and race, Pak Samad tells Perkasa, 6 April 2012
by Syed Mu’az Syed Putra
KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 — Datuk A. Samad Said dismissed today Perkasa Youth’s call for Muslims to boycott Bersih’s third rally for free and fair elections on April 28, insisting that people of all religions should fight for democracy.
The Malay rights NGO had labelled Bersih chief Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan “the “anti-Christ for Muslims” and a “traitor” to the nation, saying it was “unfortunate a supposed nationalist” like co-chair Samad was not acting like “a smart person.”
But the Malay literary icon told The Malaysian Insider the question of race and religion does not arise in the rally at Dataran Merdeka which was called by the electoral reform movement to head off what it says will be the “dirtiest” polls to date.
“They should see that Ambiga is not the only one in Bersih. If they see Ambiga as someone from a different religion who they must fight against, then am I, as a Muslim, also to be fought against?
“Anyone can help improve democracy, whether Christian or Muslim,” the national laureate said.
Bersih had said it was disappointed by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on electoral reforms that was formed following the July 9, 2011 rally for free and fair elections which saw tens of thousands flood the streets of the capital.
Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds in chaotic scenes which saw over 1,500 arrested, scores injured and the death of an ex-soldier in a clampdown that earned condemnation for the Najib administration in the international press.
The 84-member coalition said the PSC had failed to address its eight demands including cleaning up the electoral roll, a minimum 21 days’ campaign period and reforming postal voting.
But Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has promised to look into the recommendations of the panel, insisting his government also wants clean and fair elections.
The opposition had also backed the July 9, 2011 Bersih march.
(3) Islamic fundamentalists, Christian threats and Freudian slips, 7 April 2012
by Alwyn Lau
APRIL 7 — One of the popular stories Slavoj Žižek tells is about a man who is suspected of stealing items from his factory. The police, in an effort to catch him in the act, decide to station themselves at the factory gate. At night, the man would come out with a wheelbarrow. When he reached the gate, the police would then stop him and inspect everything inside the barrow. But each time the man came out with a wheelbarrow, the police could never find anything. It’s only after a long time that the police realised their folly: the man was stealing wheelbarrows.
The subversive point of the story is that often we should suspect the framework and the formulation of a given problem. It is not what the barrow contains but the barrow itself.
Take the latest inter-religious fiasco in Malaysia. The Johor Education Department organises a teacher-training seminar with an over-extended and boring title which nevertheless raised the blood pressure of many non-Muslims because it included the phrase “the threat of Christianisation to Islam”. After a public outcry, this was “resolved” by a simple title change. Now, it seems, Christianisation no longer threatens Islam, at least not in the title.
Of course, not everyone is happy.
Funny-mentalists like Pembela and Perkasa decried the “cowardice” of the change, demanding that Muslims in Malaysia have the constitutionally guaranteed right to organise events with such nasty names and that the seminar organisers should not have bowed to political pressure. The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) strongly requested that not just the name but the very content of the seminar must be amended such that any implication that Christianity was threatening Islam is removed. This was soon followed by Hasan Ali’s video revelation of three Muslims who converted to Christianity then later re-converted back to Islam (this double-proselytisation being itself problematic, as Joshua Woo points out) and his claim that Christians have been exploiting the weakening faith of Muslims occasioned by society’s materialism and hedonism.
At the end of the day, some form of resolution has been found, which is not unlike the “resolution” of the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) raid on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) last year. In that case, ultimately the Sultan said that JAIS were right to conduct the raid but DUMC weren’t sufficiently wrong — go figure.
And yet the key questions of this incident remain:
Why did the Johor Education Department use the title at all? Was it not aware of the controversy it would raise?
Assuming — cautiously — that Umno is not involved (especially in election season?) and — generously — that sheer stupidity and insensitivity is not at play here, why would a state body of such outstanding quality (if Helen Ang’s gushing holds water) commit such a boo-boo?
To revert to the wheelbarrow example about the importance of the frame itself, one answer is mildly plausible: could it be that fundamentalist Muslims in the various Islamic organisations involved and the Johor Education Department require a constant element of fear as an integral part of that which constitutes its own faith?
Not unlike Pembela and Perkasa who can feel threatened by 5,000 copies of the Alkitab (the Bible in the Malay language) coming in to the country, were the Johor seminar organisers doing nothing more than producing what they have believe — that other religions were up to no good?
In a word, are threats to fundamentalist faith something which such faith needs to include into itself?
You know how scorned lovers often lament about their loss of love, their rejection, how life is unfair, etc.? Is it not true that some of these folks, when pressed to discuss the reasons why their boy- or girlfriend has left them, nevertheless adopt an attitude of not wanting to know? They would choose ignorance because the very act of being depressed is “enjoyable” in itself, a form of enjoyment which would be diminished should the truth come to light (that, say, the relationship had lost its romance or that one’s girlfriend couldn’t stand one’s constant bickering, etc). Such people simply cannot take the loss of enjoyment which comes from more understanding; they prefer to continue bemoaning and weeping over their lost love.
Does this not resemble Pembela when they remind everyone that the Constitution guarantees the right of Muslims to organise such seminars? Are they not declaring, in effect, that “I have the right to feel irrationally threatened and nothing anyone says will change that”? Pushing this further, does it not sound as if groups like Pembela enjoy feeling threatened?
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, posited the existence of unconscious desires and wants which cannot be expressed in reality hence must be repressed. But sometimes these desires escape the censorship of our conscious minds (known as the Ego) and “over-flow” into our everyday lives, resulting in symptoms i.e. outward manifestations of inner turmoil. Hence, the notion of the Freudian slip — an (unintended) public expression of a (poorly) repressed desire.
We should be clear: it is NOT that certain fundamentalists (of all stripes, not only Muslims) are afraid that their members will commit apostasy and therefore feel the need to educate the community (this may be true but it leaves unaddressed the question of why they can be so irrationally afraid). It is that the fear of apostasy is part and parcel of what it means to be a fundamentalist, a fear which “makes up” the faith as they know it, a fear which drives them to even greater efforts at religious policing and outward “righteousness”.
It’s something they’re too ashamed to acknowledge in public, which they are thus forced to repress — but not always successfully.
And if the Johor Education Department “slipped”, then Hasan Ali must have totally “fell”. I’m not the only one who suspects that Hasan’s logic is entirely “out of this world” when he says that Muslims ravaged by the winds of hedonism are thereby easier targets for Christian proselytisation. As if greedy, pleasure-seeking people are more likely to become Christian. As if it’s not often the opposite case where the church helps those who are poverty-stricken, including Muslims, who then later choose to identify with the Christian story.
So assuming that Hasan’s arguments have no grounding in rationality, perhaps it helps to think of his words and actions as necessarily central to, because formative of, of his fundamentalism i.e. he would absolutely fear the day when there is no longer any fear of proselytisation because this would be the day that his brand of Islam begins to disintegrate.
Like the gay-hating father (played by Chris Cooper) in “American Beauty”, the more he hates homosexuals, the more his homosexual tendencies manifest themselves. In fact, his hate for homosexuals was the ultimate expression of his need for homosexual affection.
All of which highlights the vulnerable and less than fully authentic nature of the kind of faith fundamentalists have. True belief, it has been said, casts out fear. A pure faith also rejects an obsessive concern with policing other faiths and in fact longs to see the good in the different. Love, in other words, is present in the genuine.
In contrast, hate and prejudice usually reign in the minds of those who are afraid that their personal and spiritual insecurities will come into the public light. Yet paradoxically, like Oedipus, the more they want to run away from their own fears (by accusing others of being the source of these fears), the more they actualise what they fear because the fundamentalist’s greatest fear is having nothing to fear.
In the context of inter-religious issues in Malaysia, then, it’s not about what people believe but how they believe and — critically — those aspects of their beliefs which do not “show up” in official doctrine yet manifest themselves in broad daylight (or, in this context, seminar titles).
Remember, it’s not what’s in the barrow — it’s the barrow itself. — New Mandala
・This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
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