What if someone bashes Islam instead?
Joshua Wu, The Malaysian Insider
The deputy prime minister and education minister was of the opinion that the seminar on Allah and Christology at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) was just a form of “intellectual brainstorming which should be viewed positively“.
Let’s do a recap. The seminar was an academic programme to explain problems related to the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.
Pertubuhan Muafakat Sejahtera Masyarakat Malaysia (Muafakat) general-secretary Abdul Karim Omar as well as Indonesians Masyud SM, Irena Handono, Menachem Ali and Insan LS Mokoginta were among the speakers at the event.
Insan claims to be a former priest but the Bishops Conference of Indonesia said it had no information or data on him.
Furthermore, Irena did not complete her “education.” She was only briefly with the Congregation of the Ursuline Sisters as a novice.
Isn’t it amazing how individuals with such questionable backgrounds were invited to speak at an academic seminar? One would at least expect a public university of UiTM’s prestige to have vetted its guest speakers.
After all, the topic is about the problems related to the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims. Shouldn’t only the qualified be allowed to speak on such a sensitive matter?
Funny enough, it was Insan and Irena who came up with statements completely unrelated to the topic of discussion and contrary to the claim that the event was not aimed at “belittling other religions or attacking the faith of other races”.
The former said, “Every Jesus follower should enter Islam. If not, it would be a betrayal to Jesus” while the latter’s input was that, “We shouldn’t wish Merry Christmas because it means that Jesus is reborn”.
Masyud went on to say that the “Christian gospel is a fake gospel”. Mind boggling, huh? What is mind-boggling is how our education minister considers that brainstorming!
That is an outright attack on the Christian faith. There was nothing intellectual about it, and there was definitely nothing positive to be taken from it.
In order to understand fully how Christians feel after such a distasteful event, let us switch shoes. Let us envisage a hypothetical situation where a private university conducts a seminar about the “Persecution of non-Muslims” but ends up talking about the “threat of Islamisation”.
