YOURSAY 'First communist bashing. Then Chinese bashing. Now Christian bashing.'
Alumni: Seminar soiled alma mater's reputation
Malaysian Born: It's really quite sad, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), its staff and its students past and present will all be tarred by the anti-Christian seminar.
The administrators that allowed this programme to go forward in this fashion should be suspended and investigated if not sacked outright. Where on earth are these students to go after something like this, effectively painting them as coming from an institution of religious zealots with extreme views?
The worst part is that this is going to spread in the social media and will reflect badly on the country too. What were these fools thinking?
Oriole: This institute of contemporary Islamic studies has disgraced education, the institution and the nation with this sort of uneducated brainwashing of the weak and the gullible.
Students, staff and anyone associated with this institution should write to the management to express your disappointment.
The vice-chancellor of this institution should try and salvage whatever dignity is left for himself and his institution by calling for the academy to account for this disgraceful behaviour.
Some heads need to roll if this institution is to restore goodwill in the eyes of the public. But keep quiet about this and your reputation is going to be of a narrow-minded racist institution trying to raise racist red necks and to breed hatred.
The ball is in your court, VC.
HatiPakatan: Welcome to 'Malaysia, Truly Taliban'. Indonesia has many liberal-minded Muslims. With a population of 90 percent Muslims and as the largest Muslim nation in the world, it had decided to have a secular constitution.
When the Catholic pope visited Indonesia he was allowed to speak at the 100,000 capacity Sendayan Stadium and the event was telecast live. Indonesia even has Christian radio stations.
UiTM brought some right-wing non-mainstream religious zealots to paint a wrong impression of Islam. This is plain brainwashing. Let's have an interfaith dialogue, why are they so scared? The truth will set us all free.
Jesse: A place to breed religious and racial bigotry rather than an institution of higher learning? It seems UiTM is headed in that direction if it is not already there.
A potential employer would be very worried about its graduates. Probably all its graduates will end up employed as public servants.
Abu Hasan Adam: A centre of higher learning should offer students exposure to matters that benefit the country and people, not to sow the seeds of misunderstanding among races.
Fair&Just: These cowards dare to wantonly and blatantly insult other faiths because the guns, armed forces, government agencies and institutions are with them while followers of other faiths can be detained, charged under all sorts of cooked-up excuses like sedition and so on.
Anonymous #07910507: All right-thinking Malaysians should write to the Contemporary Islamic Studies Academy (Acis), the Warisan Ibnu Aaby and the Majlis Agama Islam Selangor (Mais) to voice their displeasure. Comment on their webpage.
And if possible, boycott the companies that supported the forum - Utusan Malaysia , Karangkraf Group of Companies, TV al-Hijrah, Zikay Group and Pantai Group of Companies.
Fair Play: Looking at the big picture on a global scale, one can't help but observe the attitude or behaviour of the majority of Muslim Malay Malaysians.
Their population is small in a small country like Malaysia. Because of this, their 'vulnerability' is exemplified several times over. Hence issues that do not resonate with their view and thinking would be perceived as a threat, real or imagined, to race and religion.
Without a shadow of doubt, the continued saga of the said word and other malaise are real threats according to their psyche. Inexplicably, the powers-that-be, instead of nipping it in the bud or educate them, decide to let it fester.
Angelababy: This is so sad for UiTM. It has produced many non-Malays who are ever willing to come back to help the university, but with this kind of attitude who will want to have anything to do with it now?
YUNoAnon: The government didn't allow the memorial for the late Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh be held in a school, but they allowed this bigoted freakshow of a seminar to happen in a university. Go figure.
Gov't lethargic in battling bigotry, says CCM
SteveOh: This is a sad story of endless disappointments for Christians in the country. Council of Churches (CCM), it’s about time you get organised and get some political clout.
Complaining about wrongs after they have happened is less effective than campaigning for what is right.
It is time those who know the times, and with knowledge of what to do, lead the nation and save it from its moral and political tailspin.
Lamborghini: In the past, it was communist bashing. Then it was Chinese bashing. Now it seems to be the season for Christian bashing. The government has the legal and moral responsibility to protect all its citizens, irrespective of race and religion.
If a government institution like UiTM can so brazenly and provocatively hold a seminar that so openly attacks the Christians, and yet no voice of censure from any senior cabinet minister or the PM or no action by the police, how are Christians and other minorities going to feel and respond?
How do you think we, East Malaysian bumiputera Christians, are feeling with these kinds of insulting onslaughts?
All our responsible ministers, YBs and wakil rakyats and community and religious leaders, please speak up and loudly so, and roundly censure the UiTM seminar speakers and organisers and other similar religious and racial extremism before the country breaks up.
Jesse: Religious bigotry is another aspect of racial bigotry fostered directly and indirectly by a corrupt government to hang on to power so that it can continue to plunder the nation.
These people are their tools and do not realise how stupid they are, a bunch of small-minded and half-educated characters who are being used, yet feel that they are pursuing God's work.
They are the wonder tools of a corrupt regime. Empty heads breed even bigger ones.
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