Skip to main content
Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) in the Klang Valley was raided recently by a group of between 20 and 30 police officers and officers from the Islamic religious department. Local church leaders came out strongly against the raid which was said to have disrupted the dinner to raise funds for Malaysians living with HIV but was thought to have been an activity to proselytize Muslims. Two local dailies then claimed that Christians conducted welfare activities to convert needy Muslims and the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) challenged the dailies to prove their claims. Its general secretary Reverend Dr Hermen Shastri said all religious communities did good work as a religious obligation to serve the destitute and the marginalised. The church senior pastor Dr Daniel Ho had said that the trespassers had subjected the dinner guests to undue harassment and Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing had also called on the religious departments to either furnish proof of their claims or to apologize. When I visited Iran years ago, an Iranian man whom we met said there used to be Buddhists in Iran. In the island of Java in Indonesia, Borobudur stands tall but the inhabitants in the vicinity are all Muslims. Afghanistan used to have the Bamiyan Buddhas to boast off but not the Buddhists who built them. It probably makes one wonder if Buddhist monks or their leaders for that matter, stand up.
Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) in the Klang Valley was raided recently by a group of between 20 and 30 police officers and officers from the Islamic religious department. Local church leaders came out strongly against the raid which was said to have disrupted the dinner to raise funds for Malaysians living with HIV but was thought to have been an activity to proselytize Muslims. Two local dailies then claimed that Christians conducted welfare activities to convert needy Muslims and the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) challenged the dailies to prove their claims. Its general secretary Reverend Dr Hermen Shastri said all religious communities did good work as a religious obligation to serve the destitute and the marginalised. The church senior pastor Dr Daniel Ho had said that the trespassers had subjected the dinner guests to undue harassment and Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing had also called on the religious departments to either furnish proof of their claims or to apologize. When I visited Iran years ago, an Iranian man whom we met said there used to be Buddhists in Iran. In the island of Java in Indonesia, Borobudur stands tall but the inhabitants in the vicinity are all Muslims. Afghanistan used to have the Bamiyan Buddhas to boast off but not the Buddhists who built them. It probably makes one wonder if Buddhist monks or their leaders for that matter, stand up.
Comments