Sunday, March 02, 2008
Christians will remember - from Malaysia Kini
I refer to the Malaysiakini article Have Christians learned the costly lesson?
The Christians do not announce to the world how they will vote but believe me they will vote. And when they vote this time around they will remember the following.
They will remember Lina Joy and the many others who have to keep their religious beliefs a secret because the BN government has decided with the help of the courts (whose integrity we all know by now) to violate their very fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution and that is the freedom of religion.
We will remember (and are constantly reminded) how difficult it is for us to worship when we do not get approvals for places of worship. We are not alone in this as similarly affected are the Hindus and Shia Muslims.
We will remember that in Selangor it is difficult for Christians to get land to build churches and those who have resorted to having their churches in shop houses and factories will now have to apply for a permit from the municipal authorities.
We will remember how a secular country like ours was declared an Islamic state without regard to the social contract which was ratified by way of a referendum in East Malaysia before the formation of Malaysia and we will remember how today the building of a statue has become an issue in Sabah (East Malaysia) where the majority of the ethnic population are Christians.
We will remember that besides the Indians, the Orang Asli, more son the non-Muslim Orang Asli is still languishing in the depths of poverty. What happened to their bumiputera rights?
We will also remember the hundreds of thousands of Malays who have been sidelined by the New Economic Policy and that nothing was really done to uplift their situation. On the other hand, Umnoputras fly off on overseas trips quite frequently.
We will remember that our children are being targeted in schools by some overzealous teachers in an attempt to convert them even in their minor years.
We will remember that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had not come out even once - being the authority on Islam that he is - to tell the Muslim leaders what he thought about ‘corpse- snatching’, land for churches and temples and the destruction of places of worship.
In not so doing, he has told us in no uncertain terms that we do not matter.
And in the latest episode, we will also remember that we can’t use the term ‘Allah’ because it ‘confuses’ Muslims. This regardless of the fact that there are more Muslims in this country, more mosques and suraus and millions are spent on Islamic education. It doesn’t even matter if the term is used by non-Muslims.
The Christians do not announce to the world how they will vote but believe me they will vote. And when they vote this time around they will remember the following.
They will remember Lina Joy and the many others who have to keep their religious beliefs a secret because the BN government has decided with the help of the courts (whose integrity we all know by now) to violate their very fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution and that is the freedom of religion.
We will remember (and are constantly reminded) how difficult it is for us to worship when we do not get approvals for places of worship. We are not alone in this as similarly affected are the Hindus and Shia Muslims.
We will remember that in Selangor it is difficult for Christians to get land to build churches and those who have resorted to having their churches in shop houses and factories will now have to apply for a permit from the municipal authorities.
We will remember how a secular country like ours was declared an Islamic state without regard to the social contract which was ratified by way of a referendum in East Malaysia before the formation of Malaysia and we will remember how today the building of a statue has become an issue in Sabah (East Malaysia) where the majority of the ethnic population are Christians.
We will remember that besides the Indians, the Orang Asli, more son the non-Muslim Orang Asli is still languishing in the depths of poverty. What happened to their bumiputera rights?
We will also remember the hundreds of thousands of Malays who have been sidelined by the New Economic Policy and that nothing was really done to uplift their situation. On the other hand, Umnoputras fly off on overseas trips quite frequently.
We will remember that our children are being targeted in schools by some overzealous teachers in an attempt to convert them even in their minor years.
We will remember that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had not come out even once - being the authority on Islam that he is - to tell the Muslim leaders what he thought about ‘corpse- snatching’, land for churches and temples and the destruction of places of worship.
In not so doing, he has told us in no uncertain terms that we do not matter.
And in the latest episode, we will also remember that we can’t use the term ‘Allah’ because it ‘confuses’ Muslims. This regardless of the fact that there are more Muslims in this country, more mosques and suraus and millions are spent on Islamic education. It doesn’t even matter if the term is used by non-Muslims.
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Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for 3 years 6 months it did not rain on the earth.
Amen.
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Amen.
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