Here’s another follow up on this story of the Malaysian government’s raid on a church last week, which has been justified solely on a spurious tip-off that the church was supposedly trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. Right on cue, the Malays are claiming (with their government’s blessing) that there’s indeed a diabolical scheme afoot, hatched by Malaysian Christians, to turn vulnerable Muslims into Christians. I suppose the Jews aren’t to blame this time. “Christian groups on drive to convert Muslims, Malay papers report”, by Debra Chong for The Malaysian Insider, August 6th, 2011:
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 “” Two Malay dailies alleged today that Christian organizations are carrying out covert missions to convert poverty-stricken Muslims by offering them cash, free food and housing in a follow-up to a controversial church raid this week.
In its frontpage story titled “Sogok wang gadai akidah” [“Cash bribes faith pawned”], Berita Harian reported that certain organizations were hiding behind the guise of welfare aid and offering all manner of monthly cash allowances of at least RM1,000 to hard-hit Muslims and their families in an attempt to turn them into Christians.
The pro-Barisan Nasional [which is the ruling coaltion] newspaper did not name any of the organizations but posted a pixelised photo of a woman on its cover, which it captioned as “Jasmine admits receiving aid from a community church in Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya”.
Last Wednesday, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) partnered the police and burst in on a multiracial dinner at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) in Petaling Jaya based on a report that the Christian majority crowd was allegedly proselytizing to Muslim guests, triggering a nationwide uproar.
The religious enforcement force, which answers directly to the Sultan of Selangor as head of Islam in the frontline state, has been slammed for purportedly violating the rights of the minority non-Muslim community.
It wouldn’t be the first time. In fact, you could say that such behaviour is standard procedure for the Taliban of Malaysia. Under Malaysian Muslim-written laws, it’s also perfectly legal.