Pressure on multi-faith Malaysia
Malaysia is considering its multi-cultural credentials after a crowd of Muslims on Sunday broke up a meeting called to defend the rights of religious minorities. The country's leaders condemned the disturbances, but the BBC's Jonathan Kent in Kuala Lumpur says non-Muslims feel increasingly beleaguered.
"I'm becoming an alien in Malaysia, in my own country," says Dr Jacob George. The president of the Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam in Selangor State has been helping to organise efforts to stop the local authorities in the ethnic Malay-Muslim dominated city of Shah Alam from demolishing a 107-year-old Hindu temple. Earlier in April another 19th-Century temple was demolished a few kilometres away in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Last year the compound of a cult known as the Sky Kingdom was levelled by the authorities, weeks after an attack by a Muslim mob. Many of the cultists are now on trial. And just before Christmas a newly completed church of an indigenous community near Skudai in Johor state was reduced to rubble, closely monitored by Islamic department officials and the police.
In all cases the Muslim-dominated local authorities say the buildings were illegal. Many such buildings are deemed as such because they pre-date land records. Others are put up illegally because some local authorities seem reluctant to grant permission for temples and churches, but worshippers build them regardless. In contrast, the issue of illegally built mosques rarely arises because many local governments are generous with both land and money for their construction.
Nor are the demolitions non-Muslims' only cause for concern. The police recently ordered non-Muslim policewomen to wear Muslim headscarves for their annual parade, something that many non-Muslims felt set a worrying precedent. And then there have been moves by some local authorities to ban or restrict dog ownership - conservative Muslims see dogs as unclean - and prosecute couples for holding hands or kissing in public.
"During our parents' time there was no problem when you hold hands in the park," says Fong Po Kuan, a non-Muslim opposition MP. "There's a creeping Islamicisation in our society and this isn't appropriate because we're a multi-religious, multi-racial country."
Malaysia is considering its multi-cultural credentials after a crowd of Muslims on Sunday broke up a meeting called to defend the rights of religious minorities. The country's leaders condemned the disturbances, but the BBC's Jonathan Kent in Kuala Lumpur says non-Muslims feel increasingly beleaguered.
"I'm becoming an alien in Malaysia, in my own country," says Dr Jacob George. The president of the Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam in Selangor State has been helping to organise efforts to stop the local authorities in the ethnic Malay-Muslim dominated city of Shah Alam from demolishing a 107-year-old Hindu temple. Earlier in April another 19th-Century temple was demolished a few kilometres away in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Last year the compound of a cult known as the Sky Kingdom was levelled by the authorities, weeks after an attack by a Muslim mob. Many of the cultists are now on trial. And just before Christmas a newly completed church of an indigenous community near Skudai in Johor state was reduced to rubble, closely monitored by Islamic department officials and the police.
In all cases the Muslim-dominated local authorities say the buildings were illegal. Many such buildings are deemed as such because they pre-date land records. Others are put up illegally because some local authorities seem reluctant to grant permission for temples and churches, but worshippers build them regardless. In contrast, the issue of illegally built mosques rarely arises because many local governments are generous with both land and money for their construction.
Nor are the demolitions non-Muslims' only cause for concern. The police recently ordered non-Muslim policewomen to wear Muslim headscarves for their annual parade, something that many non-Muslims felt set a worrying precedent. And then there have been moves by some local authorities to ban or restrict dog ownership - conservative Muslims see dogs as unclean - and prosecute couples for holding hands or kissing in public.
"During our parents' time there was no problem when you hold hands in the park," says Fong Po Kuan, a non-Muslim opposition MP. "There's a creeping Islamicisation in our society and this isn't appropriate because we're a multi-religious, multi-racial country."
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