Catholics lodge report against Al Islam
By Deborah Loh, The Nut Graph
The two Catholics who lodged a police report against the Al Islam magazine over an article in which the journalist took the holy communion wafer out of his mouth and photographed it, have started a peaceful protest campaign against the magazine.
Joachim Francis Xavier and Sundhagaran Stanley, from Penang, are asking Catholics to make individual police reports and to express dissatisfaction with the magazine's publisher through telephone calls or faxes.
"We are resolved not to allow anger to guide our actions and instead pray that these ignorant will be forgiven by Allah," they said.
Click both thumbnails to see full-sized scans of magazine article
The two lodged a police report on 8 July 2009 at the Patani Road police station in Penang over the article "Tinjauan Al Islam Dalam Gereja: Mencari Kesahihan Remaja Murtad" which was published in the May 2009 issue of Al Islam. The magazine is published by Utusan Karya Sdn Bhd.
In the article, the Muslim journalist, accompanied by another person, went to two Catholic churches in Kuala Lumpur on an investigative mission to find out if allegations that young Muslims were being converted to Christianity were true.
The journalist, whose by-line in the article was Muhd Ridhwan Abdul Jalil, described the holy communion ritual as "upacara makan roti putih" and wrote about how he was given the wafer by the priest. The article also carried a photograph of the wafer with a caption that identified it as the wafer that was placed in his mouth.
Communion spat out and photographed for the article
(scan from Al Islam)
Xavier and Stanley in a press statement said they were "outraged that these Muslim men consumed it [the communion] only to spit it out later, have it photographed, and have its image published".
The two Catholics said it was "total disrespect" for what Catholics regard as sacred. "It strikes deeps into our hearts and invokes much anger," they said. Catholics believe that the wafer is the actual flesh of Christ who, according to doctrine, died to remove the sins of people.
