As
a writer myself, I agree with a writer, Masood Khan from Pakistan , when he
said Malaysia is an "island of peace and tolerance".
However I
disagree when he wrote that an evil eye has cast its bad shadow on a
moderate and progressive country.
Reported in Pakistan Today and highlighted in Malaysian local news paper, 'The Malaysian Insider', Masood is quoted
as saying, Malaysia's global image as a
moderate and progressive Muslim country is being tarnished by increasing racial
and religious intolerance.
He referred to the recent, the attack on a church in the state of Penang.
His comments came following the firebombing of a church in Penang early
yesterday morning when two Molotov cocktails were thrown into the compound of
the Church of the Assumption in Lebuh Farquhar.
He said, tension heightened in Penang
when banners bearing the words "Allah is Great, Jesus is the son of
Allah" were found on Sunday outside five churches – the Victory Lutheran
Church, St John Britto Catholic Church, The Church of the Immaculate Conception
and the Church of the Assumption on the island and the Church of the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Butterworth.
Despite the millions of ringgit spent by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib
Razak(photo) to promote this moderate image through his anti-extremist Global Movement
of Moderates, the Allah row and incidents stemming from it show that this may
not be the case anymore, Masood said.
"I really felt sad about Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak's
statement in which he supported the court's judgment banning non-Muslims (read
Malaysian Christians) from using the word Allah in the Bible text and in church
services.”
"What do you call this when the authorities' attempt to distract Malay
Muslims, who constitute 60% of the population, from subsidy cuts and rising
cost of living, or it’s a simple case of narrow-mindedness to put various
religious groups against each other to perpetuate the grip over power," he
added.
Source: The Malaysian Insider
Masood khan (whoever he is) is from
Pakistan and how long he was in Malaysia is questionable. As such I wonder whether he know that
Malaysia comprises of many countries – inclusive of two countries lay in the
Island of Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak).
Actually, there is 13 states in
Malaysia. And they are perceived with more than 100 group of different ethnics
and having numerous cultural heritages, and religious back ground.
What did happened in the state of Penang and may be in Selangor state are not
necessary representing the scenario in the other Malaysian states.
No doubt , there is some unnecessary on going tension in those two states,
however the rest of the other states, the
living is quite normal and harmonious. In other word, if reflected ‘ business
like usual’.
It is rather unfortunate, Masood simply come up with
this conclusion. Where as, the true story may not be as bad as reported. Worse
still, he could have get his information
from a twisted second-rated news paper with the intention of smearing the image of Malaysia.
Before he wrote the article , he should explore the rest of Malaysia and only
then he is fair in regards with his perception on how bad the tensions he mentioned
earlier.
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