Wednesday, January 29, 2014

MALAYSIA NO LONGER A PEACE AND TOLERANCE SAYS PAKISTAN WEBSITE IS ABSURD AND NOT TRUE


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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