ONE CAME IN PEACE, ONE SNEERED & GROWLED, ONE COULDN'T THINK ON HIS FEET

HE LOOKED AHEAD AND BEYOND

 APRIL 12 — My (PAS MP for Parit Buntar and PAS National Unity Committee Chairman) mission to dialogue with Penang’s Christian communities ended in St Anne — my 4th session in the northern state.

The first was at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Island Glade. It was successful in the sense that communities learnt first hand PAS’s stand on the kalimah Allah issue. From the Nativity Church in Butterworth, Immaculate Church in Pulau Tikus and finally in St Anne Bukit Mertajam, the dialogue tour acted as a beacon of hope for the future of multi-faith relations in Malaysia.

Last Sunday (28th April) I spoke at a dialogue held at The St Louis Church in Taiping. I look forward to traversing the country to talk and dialogue with Christians in an effort to start a new culture of understanding and dialogue between faiths.

I learned a lot from these dialogues.

I want to share that experience with The Malaysian Insider readers and hope to get feedback which can eventually contribute to help build bridges between different faiths in this country.

I got to know new friends, whom I would not have met otherwise. I met father Xavier, Father Stephen Liaw, Dr Mary, Angie, Martin and many more which I can’t remember their names but I know them to be men and women of good faith.

 ………………Otherwise I would not have met with so many people of different faiths sharing similar hopes.

Hopes which have been buried underground for the past 50 years just because certain quarters wanted to keep us at bay on the ground and avoid discussing openly about sensitive issues.

……………..I was also pleased by the support I received from PAS activists such as Ustaz Roshdi, Abdul Rahman, Pak Andak, Nasir, Yusof and others. They were so excited by the dialogues, they followed me everywhere I went. In Taiping a group of students from one of the Islamic Private School attended the talk. When I asked the Principal who accompanied them, why they came he answered in one word ‘to learn’, I hope they did.

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HE LOOKED DOWN AND BEHIND.

The Cabinet agreed recently to form an inter-faith committee to foster religious understanding and harmony, damaged in the past few months by religious differences such as the controversial “Allah” ruling.
It had earlier this year appointed Datuk Ilani Isahak to chair the committee and green-lighted five sub-committees to draw up proposals on how best to deal with the inter-religious conflicts.
The sub-committees will be jointly-chaired by a Muslim and a non-Muslim, and include five religious representatives from both communities.

The committee has been conceived as a forum for the exchange of views and issues of faith, and to prevent misunderstanding and misinterpretation over religion.

Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali told a press conference that it is not appropriate to place a body dealing with religious matters under a department for inter-ethnic relations.

“Why is a committee that has to do with Islam under Koh Tsu Khoon? Why not under Minister in Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom, who is in charge of Islamic affairs?" he asked.

Ibrahim countered that Islam is the official religion of the nation and that the Rulers Council is the highest authority.

As such, their input - as well as that of Muslim religious scholars and the National Fatwa Council - should have been obtained first. Otherwise, it would seem that they have been bypassed.

“We demand that the name of the committee be changed to (that of) inter-racial understanding, or that it be place it under Jamal Khir's purview,” he insisted.

HE DID NOT KNOW WHERE TO LOOK

So he, the DPM said:

 “The inter-faith committee set up by the Cabinet consisted only of “small-fry,” in a bid to calm fears expressed by right-wing Malay groups that it would threaten the sanctity of Islam.

The lack of any legal powers in the committee, said Muhyiddin, means it will not have any influence over the nation’s official religion.

 READ WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT

I just hope the Committee does not over-react over small fry remark.