MAY 8 — MCA Religious Harmony Bureau is totally shocked that the panellists at the seminar on the ‘Allah’ word and Christology in the Malay Archipelago hosted at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) on May 6, 2014 had turned the forum into a Christian-bashing session where doubts were casted on the contents of the New Testament of the Bible while distrust and suspicion were fomented against the Christian community. Such a move will only polarise our society further between Muslims and non-Muslims.
It is not up to the presenters to determine whether the religious beliefs and practices of another faith are right or wrong. They should keep such opinions to themselves rather than blurting it all out in a public arena, thereby instigating the audience against Christians. Even worse, the panellists are in no position to belittle the religion of others.
Considering that UiTM is a public university funded by tax-payers, such a presentation will not augur well for the goodwill intended from the 1Malaysia concept mooted by our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Universities are avenues and the gateway to acquire new knowledge and make academic advances. Unfortunately such Christian bashing discourses may cast a question mark on the quality of UiTM’s courses, authorities, lecturers, organisers and students.
We call on the university authorities to probe as to how it could allow such a seminar to be conducted and what form of concrete measures will be taken to repair any fallout from the seminar as well what types of national unity programmes will UiTM organise to foster goodwill and integration between UiTM students and students of other religions and creed.
Concerns that minority students and lecturers will be targeted
Considering that UiTM consists of students and as tertiary students are at an impressionable age, our Bureau is deeply concerned if the topics and contents presented will leave an indelible mark among the students who may overwhelmingly share a common faith against other students, lecturers and Malaysians who are not adherents of the same faith.
Moreover, as there is a small number of minority Christian Bumiputera students from Sabah and Sarawak as well as lecturers who are non-Muslim, we shudder at the scenario if they become victimised, belittled or ostracised for their faith by their peers who attended the seminar.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/put-a-full-stop-to-all-these-christian-bashings-mca-religious-harmony-burea
No comments:
Post a Comment