YOURSAY ‘What is the problem if the church can be seen from the highway?’

NGOs protest new church, say insult to Muslims

Quigonbond: What sensitivity is this bunch of people talking about? Most cities in Malaysia has myriad places of worship within walking distance. Why should this be any different?

Also, demographic consideration, if there are many Christians around, then it's completely understandable to build a church. You can claim it is a majority Muslim-Malay area, but even assuming it is true, you can't deny other people their place of worship.

Is Islam in Malaysia so frail and weak that it would be okay to build a single-storey church but not a four-storey church?

Tholu: "The majority in Selangor are Malays... the sultan is Malay, the menteri besar is Malay, the state police chief is Malay, the administration is also Malay, what religion are they (the local authorities)?" asked Martabat Jalinan Muhibbah Malaysia (MJMM) president Abdul Rani Kulup.

To my knowledge, all the states in Peninsular Malaysia (except perhaps Penang) have more Malays than any other race. No state has a non-Malay sultan. No state has a non-Malay police chief, and again except for Penang perhaps, there is no non-Malay state administration.

Therefore going by Abdul Rani's parochial and blinkered argument, there shouldn't be places of worship of other religions other than suraus and mosques.

And how paranoid and religious extremist can the pro-Umno bloggers be to suspect that there could be an agenda by the Christians to proselytise the Muslims.

Conversely can the non-Malays assume that mosques have an hidden agenda to convert non-Muslims in their vicinity to Islam? So much for racial and religious tolerance in this country.

Hang Tuah PJ: So, what is the problem if the church can be seen from the highway, please explain.

And remember, minorities have rights also. I really don't understand these idiots. I am a Muslim and I prefer to have God-fearing non-Muslims as neighbours than non-God-fearing ones.

It is the same as in the Shah Alam cow-head incident . They say majority in that area are Muslims. But these Muslims actually migrated from all over Malaysia to find jobs in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor and ‘swamped’ out the estate Indians who had been having the temple there for a long time.

Why do non-Muslims always have to keep making way for Muslims? Every Malaysian has a place under the sun in this soil and every Malaysian has his or her rights. Learn to live with all Malaysians, idiots. 

Moonraker: Where then can non-Muslim places of worship be built but out of sight of Muslims? Are non-Muslims to live in ghettos? Why this harassment?

Malaysia's tourism campaign should contain such extremist material. The intolerance and the lack of respect for others should be publicised. Also, the chaos on the streets.

The Malaysian motorist is a lower form on life on this planet. There is free and convenient parking - Malaysians park everywhere and anywhere. And street crime. And throw in the broken English in this purportedly English-speaking country. And the corruption.

The streets, the beaches, the rivers, the seas, and the drains are filthy. And so are Malaysian toilets. And foreign women tourists, especially white women, get harassed.

Is there a hidden agenda to promote conflict amongst the communities so that a state of emergency can be declared eventually and a certain group can take control and dissenters be suppressed?

Malaysia, truly Asia? No, Malaysia, the broken dream.

Malaysian 1 ^st : I am surprised Muslims are very weak in their faith. Just a church building can insult them. They can easily forsake their religion and get converted to another by looking at a building. 

A church building should not be seen from highway or LRT line. I hope this is not the reflection of real Muslims.

Christians believe God does not live in buildings made by man, but in the pure clean hearts of God-fearing people. Thus it is written: You are the Temple of God.

Dr Suresh Kumar: Why to go so far as to Turkey, all these mentally charged imbeciles have to do is, travel only 125km to Malacca town centre and they can see how a 200-year-old mosque, a Hindu temple and Chinese temple stand side by side.

Isn't that prove enough how those olden days people lived in harmony and peace, respecting one another’s belief as compared to the NEP-educated or wasted Melayu Barus, who want to be fed eternally by the kafirs?

By the way, those days in Malacca, the Malay Muslims could view not one but many churches from their ‘perahus’ (boats) from the Sungai Melaka, yet they remained not only Muslims but kind, peaceful, respectful, hardworking Malay Muslims unlike the present-day Malay Muslims, mainly the Umno Malay Muslims, the unthinking, thoughtless, inconsiderate, arrogant, and tactless ones.

The irony is, these imbeciles strongly believe that, they are heading to heaven by disrespecting others. What horrible place heaven must be.

Kangkung: Since this group of Umno NGOs is unhappy about a church in a Malay-Muslim area, does it mean non-Muslims also get to state their unhappiness about a mosque built in a non-Muslim majority area?

Do you notice that not a day passes without one of Umno NGOs trying to provoke hatred and anger among Muslims?

And of course the Umno home minister and IGP (inspector-general of police) will keep quiet about this as these Umno NGOs are only "protecting the sanctity of Islam".

Basically: Perhaps they prefer the church to be built underground so no one can see it. I am not Christian nor Muslim, but I don’t rant about other places of worship in my neighbourhood insulting me.

This is PM Najib Razak's 1Malaysia, I suppose. And this is what I guess the fatwa against 'pluralism' means.

We are 1Malaysia as long as the others who are not the first (ie Muhyiddin First), are hidden from view and standing way at the back of the queue.

Open Minded: In the place where I stay, there is a Catholic church and a Hindu temple sharing the same common wall and we live in harmony and peace and help each other in the spirit of love.

This is what religion should be all about. But some misled and confused lot behaves like thugs and villains in the name of religion.

Malaysian Down Under: Malaysia is a Muslim-majority country. Almost in every town and city of this country, there will be more Muslims than non-Muslims. Does that mean no other houses of worship can be erected?

Are the Hindus, Christians and Buddhists to be herded together into racial/religious enclaves where they are then permitted to worship in peace? I'm not waiting to find out.

I've become Australian, and my daughter is now also Australian. With a PhD from Oxford, I now live, work and worship in peace in this free country, Australia.

Vijay47: Considering the ease with which Muslims seem to get confused and have their faith weakened, I can understand, though by no means accept or agree, their discomfort in having a church close to where they roost.

Again we face these recently emphasised double standards. I stay in an area which is not 70 percent but more than 90 percent non-Muslims, yet the authorities saw fit to approve such a plan.

The only reason I can see for such liberal decisions is to flaunt power and gloat, "Yes, we will build a mosque where we like and what are you going to do about it?"

But what takes the almighty cake is the complaint that the Subang church could be seen from Federal Highway. How in heaven's name is that a factor?

Do these guys go to some college somewhere to come out with these gems? Only in Malaysia, folks, only in Malaysia.

Odysseus: You should be asking the government to create settlements for people who can be sensitive easily. Block TV channels, block Internet, do not provide data services, ban anything you do not desire.

Please ban cars and motocycles because these are inventions from the west/Christians. Stop imports from China and India. Do not use modern medicine or doctors. You and your community can live happily ala Jim Jones. Peace be with you.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.