The Catholic Lawyers of the Diocese of Penang wishes to express our grave concern over the recent protest by some 300 demonstrators in front of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Silibin, Ipoh. The demonstration had disrupted the first holy communion service for 98 Catholic children.
We find it most alarming that the entire protest was a result of the circulation of a text message (SMS) which had falsely claimed that the church planned to baptise and convert Muslims.
The SMS was mischievous, irresponsible and very damaging to inter-religious relations in general and the relationship between Muslims and Christians in particular.
It has been reported in the press that the Perak mufti had announced the unverified claims in the SMS to representatives of Muslim NGOs at the state mosque.
As a religious leader, the mufti should have acted with greater responsibility by verifying the authenticity of the facts with the church before making any such announcement.
We urge all our religious leaders and their followers to have more dialogues, as such confrontations could have been avoided had there been open channels of communication.
Malaysia is often referred to by leaders of other nations as a role model for good multi-racial and multi-religious ties that exist amongst its citizens. The recent protest has tarnished this image and undermined the existing good relations.
We urge all Malaysians to nurture a deeper understanding and acceptance of our diverse religious beliefs and practices as opposed to observing mere tolerance.
We call upon the authorities to continue to investigate the incident and to charge those responsible for spreading such a rumour, which has unnecessarily caused tension, suspicion, mistrust and disruption.
However, we also urge the authorities not to charge them under the ISA (as suggested by one of our leaders) or under any other draconian laws which would deny them of their right to a fair trial. There are sufficient alternative laws under which they could be prosecuted in the courts of law.
The writer is chairman, Catholic Lawyers of the Diocese of Penang.
