Salleh decries abuse of Islam for politics
The Sabah Speaker says the anti-cross protest was another incident leading Malaysia down a dangerous path.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Sabah Speaker Salleh Said Keruak has described Sunday’s protest against a Taman Medan church as an instance of Islam being “abused in the interest of politics”.
“The protest against the cross is not the first and only incident that is troubling this country,” he said in his latest blog posting.
“We in Sabah are very concerned about this matter plus about all those issues involving the Bahasa Malaysia Bible, the Allah word, and many other controversies. This is taking Malaysia down a very dangerous path that may soon cross the point of no return with only a slippery slope ahead of us.”
Salleh added his voice to calls to distance Islamic teachings from such incidents. He referred to a famous incident in early Islamic history in which Umar ibn al-Khattab declined an invitation to pray in a church for fear that the action would be misinterpreted as Muslims taking over the house of worship.
Umar was the second caliph of Islam. He succeeded Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, who took over the administration of the Islamic state after the Prophet’s death. The incident Salleh referred to happened after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem.
“Basically,” Salleh said, “Umar respected the sanctity of the Christian church and he did not want it to appear like the Muslims had displaced the Christians and had taken over their place of worship. And for sure Umar did not command that Christian icons such as the cross be removed from the church.
