No more Mr Nice Guy, Muslim convert writer tells Putrajaya

(Malay Mail Online) – Putrajaya is already too accommodating towards non-Muslims here, said controversial Muslim convert writer Ridhuan Tee Abdullah when telling the federal government to rebuff critics of the way it was handling racial and religious controversies.

Writing in an opinion piece published by Malay language daily Sinar Harian today, Tee also said the detractors of the government were disregarding the “special position” of Islam in the Federal Constitution when attacking Putrajaya over the recent spate of religious controversies.

According to the senior lecturer with the National Defence University, the government need not bow to these non-Muslim demands as they were made without good intentions and purely for their personal interests.

“We have been too nice all this while. Look at how we have allowed them to build the largest church, when Christians number less than 10 per cent (of the population.) This does not include the churches in every state, district, area, shophouses, and Orang Asli villages,” Tee wrote.

“If we were fair and equal, then the Chinese of Buddhist and Taoist faiths are more entitled, as they are over 20 per cent (of Malaysians).”

Earlier in his piece, Tee took aim at the remarks of an “ultra kiasu” priest over the latter’s assertion that Malaysians have lost faith with Putrajaya over its failure to address racial and religious extremism in the country.

Tee did not name the priest specifically, but Bible Society of Malaysia’s president Bishop Ng Moon Hin made remarks of the nature in a recent interview.

“Ultra kiasu” is a euphemism Tee initially used to label federal opposition party DAP, but he has since applied it to other groups including Christians and the Chinese in general.

Among others, Ng had highlighted Putrajaya’s refusal to resolve the worsening religious friction stemming from the Christian-Muslim tussle over “Allah”, the Arabic word for God, which was triggered by a Home Ministry ban against the Catholic Church’s use of the word in its newsletter.

Ng’s BSM was also caught up in the issue when the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) raided the society in January and seized over 300 copies of Malay- and Iban-language bibles.

The department is now refusing to return the bibles, despite being ordered to do so by the Selangor government.