Written by Yin Ee Kiong Saturday, 22 September 2012 16:02
Contributors
In a years which we have been to Indonesia we have seen it change from a sincerely passive society, especially after Suharto, to a reduction passive a single in a relatively short time. This growing dogmatism is not secular though religious. Sometimes it is between Muslims as well as Christians though increasingly it is between a single Muslim group as well as another.
While a Indonesian supervision did not create a problem, it did not assistance to stamp it out either.
The corner in Bogor between a mayor as well as a church continues. The mayor notwithstanding a High Court sequence has refused to let a church open for service. President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono would not intervene when a police refused to exercise a justice order. The assemblage right away worships by a side of a highway outward a church.
This is a most high profile example of a authorities taking sides. There have been others.
La! st year multiform Ahmadists were killed by a infancy Sunnis in a single town. The perpetrator surprisingly usually a single was held was found guilty. Sentence: Six months! With good behaviour taken in to consideration as well as since he had been in remand, he most walked free. The total village cheered.
Lately more Ahmadists have been attacked.
And usually recently members of a Shia group have additionally been attacked as well as their houses burned to a ground.
In all these cases instead of protecting a minority, a government's reply was which these 'minorities' should bear counselling as well as afterwards modify to a infancy idea Sunni.
Where is a Pancasila? What happened to Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity)?
Discrimination opposite minorities in Malaysia
Can this happen opposite a straits?
Not in those conditions . . . NOT YET!
But a harm of a alternative religions, especially Christianity, has been starting upon a prolonged time in Malaysia.
The disproportion between Indonesia as well as Malaysia is which in a former a harm is village initiated albeit abetted by a supervision unwilling to exercise a law as well as affording meagre insurance for a minorities. While in a latter, it is a supervision which discriminates opposite a non-Muslims by pointed as well as not so pointed methods whilst obliging a fundamentalist Muslims.
Religious dogmatism is manifested in most ways in Malaysia. While there have been no outright attacks upon non-Muslims, things have been done formidable for them by a government.
Burial land lacking
For a prolonged time now, non-Muslims have been angry about a existent funeral land running out. Yet a authorities exclude to alienate land for this role as well as in a master devise of brand new townships, there is mostly no grant is done for funeral land for alternative faiths besides Islam.
If a minorities make make use of of their particu! lar secu lar parties such as MIC as well as MCA or alternative member parties in a BN coalition to pull for a land, they have a chance, quite when elections have been around a corner. So it becomes a bribe funeral belligerent for votes.
So in a demeanour of speaking, a interests of passed have been an election carrot too.
Land to bury your loved ones should be done accessible for all citizens.
It is not usually a passed who have been deprived.
Church as well as church office office office building a whole blocked
In a grant of land for places of worship, Muslims have been allocated a comparative measure of 1:800 in a race with a spatial requirement of 0.4 hectare for a mosque, as well as 1:250 as well as 0.1 hectare for a surau.
With non-Muslims a comparative measure is 1:4000 with a spatial requirement "suitable for a church or temple". In alternative difference a bureaucrats will confirm what we get not what we need.
Even if we have a land to set up your place of ceremony we have been done to burst by hoops to get what we want as well as usually if we have been lucky.
In reply to a Sultan of Selangor's criticism which no land has been allocated for places of ceremony for non-Muslims in a Shah Alam master plan, a municipality allocated as well as sole to a Catholic Church a 1.116 acre site. Bear in mind a church had practical for land since 1977.
Construction began in 1993 though shortly stopped since certain Islamic organisations said a church would "challenge a sanctification of Islam as a country's central sacrament as well as a position of Muslims as a whole" (The Journey of The Catholic Church Maureen K.C. Chew IJ).
The office office office building capitulation was rescinded as well as office office office building a whole stopped. To cut by a boredom of a tos as well as fros between church as well as government, let's usually say it took a prolonged time prior to a church was accomplished after com! plying w ith most office office office building restrictions imposed by a municipal council so which it does not look conspicuous.
"Except for a silver-plated sign during a left corner of a main gate, no a single would design which a walled office office office building along Jalan Pemaju in Section U1/15 . . . is actually a church . . . But every Sunday sunrise . . . a Catholic faithful have been travelling during least fifteen to twenty mins from various tools of Shah Alam to a secluded industrial area where a church has eventually found a home 28 years after a Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese first practical with a Selangor state supervision to acquire a square of land upon which to set up a church . . . " (Allen V. Estabillo Southeast Middle East Press Alliance twelve May 2010).
(Note: The Church of a Divine Mercy non-stop a doors in 2005).
Such difficulties were not confined to a Peninsula or usually to a church.
Muslims objected to a office office office building of a Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu.
The deputy Chief Minister of Sabah Chong Kah Kiat quiescent in protest when a Mazu sea goddess was prevented from being built during a Kudat waterfront.
In Kuching a Sikh community's construction of a church came underneath attack.
And lately, Orang Asli churches were pulled down by a authorities claiming a villagers did not have office office office building permit.
The state additionally discriminates opposite alternative religions in alternative ways some blatant similar to not allowing Christians a make make use of of of 'Allah', acclimatisation of non-Muslim minors in a face of strong parental objections, as well as some in more guileful ways similar to a carry out of mission schools as well as a key of Islamic Civilisation as a compulsory course in universities.
Our sovereign constitution guarantees freedom of ceremony though have been we really giveaway to worship?
It wasn't regularl! y simila r to that
The opposite religions used to coexist side by side as well as no a single was disturbed which a single would "challenge a sanctity" of a other. In Penang in a heart of Georgetown we have a church upon a same highway as a Buddhist temple, a mosque as well as a Hindu temple. All inside of a stone's chuck of a other. Such examples of aged architecture can be found via a country.
So what has changed?
The supervision in Malaysia seems to have motionless which their staying in power depends upon obliging a 'majority'. This is a misreading since in actuality those they solicit to have been in actuality a minority.
But usually since they speak louder as well as have been prepared to make make use of of extreme measures to further their agenda, they have been since an ear when they should have been put in their place. The loyal infancy (of Muslims) in Malaysia have been passive as well as peace-loving. The complaint is they have been frightened of a radical minority, so they keep quiet. Their overpower means they have been ignored.
The authorities additionally exclude to exercise a law to curb a hate-mongering of a immoderate fringe. On a alternative hand, laws have been used opposite those who dare protest a actions of a extremists. Those who protest extremism have been instead accused of "stirring up secular and/or eremite sentiments".
And should a minority mount up for their rights they have been labeled "confrontational".
This is not a complaint usually of a non-Muslims. This complaint affects additionally a Muslims in Malaysia.
Becoming similar to Indonesia
The day will come when Malaysian Muslims face a incident similar to which in Indonesia where anyone not conforming to a infancy idea is branded heretic, persecuted or even killed.
The logic seems to be "if we do not hold just as w! e do", w e have been practising heresy.
Who is to say which an Ahmadist or Shiite is reduction of a Muslim than a Sunni?
And where is this "no force in Islam" which Prophet Mohammed taught?
Christianity has left by a Spanish Inquisition as well as Reformation where anyone holding a opposite idea to which of a Roman Catholic Church was branded heretic, tortured, drawn as well as quartered.
In Indonesia today, ordinary Indonesians have been forced by a Muslim fundamentalists to conform. But in Indonesia during least we see a public reacting strongly opposite this radicalism as well as they have been fighting back, notwithstanding their government's inaction. The press as well condemn these acts of intolerance.
and political parties (including those in a government) have castigated a Minister for Religion as well as a President for their refusal to carry out a law.
However we do not see a press in Malaysia condemning a extremists. we do not see a member parties in BN condemning Umno's manipulation of these nonconformist groups which stir up secular hatred as well as eremite tensions.
But more than that, unless a tolerant, magnanimous Muslims in Malaysia mount up to a radicals in their surrounded by as well as unless they force a supervision to understanding with a extremists, there will be bigger trouble further down a highway for all of us both Muslims as well as non-Muslims.
The infancy of Malays cannot stay silent much longer. They have as much to lose as a eremite minorities if a Islamic radicals have their way. It's not about party politics everybody loses!
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