YOURSAY 'It is clear that Umno's ploy of manufacturing fears of apostasy - and hoping that it would translate into numbers - has failed.'

5,000 turn up at anti-apostasy rally

SusahKes: "The ‘Congregation of a Million' is a symbolic, not literal one," said Himpun co-chairperson Yusri Mohamad.

No, it's not symbolic or literal - it's a real failure. With all the sentiments whipped up by Umno ministers and Utusan Malaysia , I do pity the fool who paid rental for an 80,000 crowd when only 5,000 showed up.

And I wonder, how many of them were ‘asked' to attend? Bersih 2.0 with all of its obstacles, harassment and demonisation, managed to gather a 50,000 crowd. And I'm sure many more would have turned up if the police had given the permit.

So it is very clear that Umno's ploy of manufacturing fears of apostasy - and hoping that it would translate into numbers - has failed.

Now over to you PM Najib Razak and Umno - what's next on the drawing board? Oh, I forgot - Najib's not working this weekend. He's got a football game to watch.

Dila: "(Perak mufti) Harussani Zakaria said the Malays are the most special race in the world as all Malays are Muslim."

Harussani, what happened to the Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) last sermon when he explicitly said, "All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over a white except by piety and good action."

How dare you now said that the Malays are a 'special' race when the Prophet himself said that no race is superior/special than the other?

By the way, you get your facts wrong - there are many Malays who are not Muslim, just go look at Indonesia and the Philippines.

Tan Kim Keong: Harussani said the Malays are the most special race in the world as all Malays are "bound to Islam in the constitution".

Now can you all see the parallel with Hitler's thinking 70 years ago about the Germans. For heaven sake, the Perak sultan should reprimand Harussani now and send him for counselling. Otherwise, the sultan will be seen as condoning facism, racism and religious bigotry.

Slimboy: Who is Christianising the Malays in Selangor? And why only in Selangor? What about Kuala Lumpur, Perak and elsewhere?

Harussani has claimed that a quarter million of Malays have converted. Yes, this is same person who some years ago was naive and stupid enough to believe Malays were being baptised in an Ipoh church by, of all people, Azhar Mansor.

It is clear as daylight this is Umno's ploy to regain Selangor, the jewel state of Malaysia. Poor sods all of them - herded like wildebeests to lush grazing land at the Shah Alam stadium to be easy prey for those Umno ‘buayas' (crocodiles).

Equinox: I can't believe it, such a lot of hysteria just because 12 Muslims attended a dinner party organised by a Christian group.

Yet tens of thousands of Muslims were educated at very impressionable ages by Christian priests, pastors, La Salle brothers and nuns not so very long ago, including those who later became some of the country's top leaders.

I grew up with Muslim kids at some of these mission schools, but I can't recall any apostasy among them. I think some vocal Muslims have lost all sense of proportion and confuse a lot of their fellow ‘umat', not to mention causing a lot of ill-feelings.

But then, perhaps they know something I don't. May be there have been an alarming number of apostasy cases. I believe in action and reaction to have some kind of balance. As things stand, I am not sure there is any sign of ‘action' to bring on such a hysterical reaction.

YF: Himpun's failure and the student rally in support of suspended law professor Abdul Aziz Bari at UIA (Universiti Islam Antarabangsa) are good signs that the Umno propaganda machine is not working.

The rakyat are no longer fooled by Umno's lies simply because the rakyat have wised up. The porn shows, the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) abuses, the Bersih clampdown, etc, have all backfired on Umno.

JusticeKini: When Martin Luther King Jr, the US civil rights leader, called for a ‘Million Man March', you can see close to a million came by trains, buses and on foot.

Himpun's ‘million people' rally is just a colossal disaster by all accounts. This gathering is nothing more than a show of force and in line with Umno's ‘ketuanan' policy of race and religion.

Martin Niemoller wrote this: When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn't a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

JFK (John F Kennedy) said, "We do not fear to negotiate and neither do we negotiate out of fear." Christians have been taught to love thy enemies. Muslims are not our enemies and Christians will continue to provide help and love them unconditionally.

Milosevic: This is the same playbook from Yugoslavia (i.e. Christians will be over-run by Muslims). We see the strategic provocation of mass paranoia over religion by small groups and the media acting in the service of power-hungry authoritarian leaders.

While it is encouraging that only a few are behind this in Malaysia, which is the case in all of these situations, the danger remains that a small minority can in fact wreak havoc in a society.

The reasonable majority do not want to get involved, but a situation can build up in which the masses are either coerced into supporting the religious and political fascists, or become very confused by lies and uncertainty as to actually give in to or start believing the thugs and provocateurs.

This is obviously the intent of the Umno para-organisations - Malaysians need to be very vigilant about the spiral of violence that can occur, despite most decent people not wanting to see this happen. Tragedy awaits Malaysia if history repeats itself.

Reform: I'm a Malay Muslim. I'm protected by the federal constitution. I do not fear being converted. All Muslims shouldn't feel that way.

Why Muslims sought help from non-Muslims is something else. Muslims must find answers to this, rather than pointing fingers. Those entrusted to look after Muslim welfare must be really advocating and serious about assisting the Muslims.

I have encountered serious flaws in the system of distributing aid. This is a Malay problem, not a religious one.

'Himpun gathering an epic failure'

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