Malaysia Christians, Muslims Foster Friendly Relations

Wednesday, Jul. 1, 2009 Posted: 6:21:03PM HKT

A carnival held in the middle of the year to showcase the country’s rich multifarious culture and arts. Known as Warna-Warna Malaysia and Citrawarna Malaysia, it is organised by the tourism Ministry of Malaysia and is held on a nationwide scale. During this carnival, various hotels in the country promote different cuisine of respective states. Launched with extravagant show, dazzling dances and mesmerising music and costumes, it is truly a sight to behold. (Photo: Asia Valley)

An ecumenical dialogue session organised by and for Christians and Muslims held last month in Kuala Lumpur proved to be an opportunity for the building of friendly relations amid inter-religious and inter-racial tensions stirring in the Muslim-majority nation.

The success of the forum lay in that Muslims, Christians and others "actually came together in a non-threatening environment and interacted as friends", The Rev Sivin Kit, a founding member of Friends in Conversation, one of the two bodies that organised the event, expressed according to Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN).

Participants interacted with one another before and after the two-hour event while the fact that Muslims were willing to take part in an event conducted in a church was commendable, said The Rev Kit.

Furthermore, they “were cautious not to offend each other”, since for many it was their first time attending such a forum, he noted.

Titled People Like Us: How Arrogance Divides People, the forum saw an attendance of 103 people, evenly split between Muslims on one hand and Catholics and Protestants on the other. The event was held on June 12 at Bangsar Lutheran Church in Kuala Lumpur.

The forum is an effort to explore new ways forward as it brings together stories and perspectives from two complementary experiences as minorities in pluralistic societies: Muslims in a Western society and Christians in a Muslim majority society, as stated in the online brochure publicising the forum.

Well-known political analyst Tricia Yeoh, who sat in at the forum as one of three panelists, raised several issues faced by minorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia; among them, competition by Muslim-dominated political parties to push an Islamic agenda in the country.

Yeoh, who serves as a research officer to the chief minister of Selangor state, also raised the issue of Christians not being allowed to use the word “Allah” to refer to God.

In a highly publicised case, Catholic weekly Herald is engaged in a court battle with the authorities over the use of the Arabic word in its Malay section. Herald is published in four languages, including English, Tamil and Mandarin.

The High Court announced late May that the Catholic Church cannot use “Allah” until the court gives a ruling on the matter on July 7.

Ahmad Farouk Musa, another forum speaker and an MPF founding member suggested the need for Muslims to reform and stressed the importance of reason.

Forum speaker Waleed Aly, an Australian lawyer, Muslim community leader and author of a book titled People Like Us: How Arrogance is Dividing Islam and the West told the forum that many misconceptions about Islam and Muslims exist in the West.

While he acknowledged that there was cultural misunderstanding, he did not feel that Muslims being discriminated against in the West.

Friends in Conversation is a Christian group that holds discussions on social, political and economic issues. The group plans to engage further in dialogue and conversation with Muslim groups, The Rev Kit told UCAN. In coming months, it will be involved in planning a joint forum with Sisters in Islam (SIS), a group committed to promoting women’s rights within an Islamic framework.

The dialogue was co-organised by the Muslim Professionals Forum (MPF) and Friends in Conversation and coordinated by The Rev Kit, who is the pastor of Bangsar Lutheran Church.

About 60 percent of Malaysia’s total population of 27 million is Muslim Malay. The rest are mostly ethnic Chinese and Indians.

Nathanael Ng
Christian Post Reporter