Malay Indians: world-wide voices of support, Malay islamic republic's gag order

Malay Indians: world-wide voices of support, Malay islamic republic's gag order

AIMF deplores demolition of Hindu temples in Malaysia (The Hindu, Dec. 9, 2007)

New Delhi (PTI): The All-India Minorities Front (AIMF) on Sunday condemned demolition of nearly 10,000 temples in Malaysia, saying Islam preaches co-existence of believers of all faiths.

"Islam preaches co-existence of believers of all faiths and those who demolished approximately 10,000 temples can never be believer of Islam or followers of Prophet," a release, quoting AIMF chairman S M Asif, said.

Urging the Malaysian government to take steps for re-building temples, the release said it appeared that it was a deep-rooted conspiracy to discredit Islam.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200712091967.htm

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Howard M. Friedman Professor of Law Emeritus University of Toledo

USCIRF Protests Malaysian Action Against Hindus

Last week, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a release expressing concern over recent actions taken by the government of Malaysia against its Hindu minority. It said that authorities have increasingly demolished Hindu temples and shrines to build expressways or or other projects around Kuala Lumpur. Politicians have also ordered Hindu statues visible from a busy highway destroyed. Malaysian authorities have also used violent tactics against Hindu demonstrators who were seeking to call attention to economic, social and religious discrimination against the Indian minority in the country. USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie called for "the U.S. government to raise the destruction of Hindu temples with Malaysian authorities and insist that immediate measures be taken to protect sacred sites and prevent further destruction." AFP on Friday reported on the USCIRF statement.
http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2007/12/uscirf-protests-malaysian-action.html
Malaysia: USCIRF Concerned Over Destruction of Hindu Temples and Need for Protection of Freedoms

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 5, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

WASHINGTON—The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is concerned by recent actions taken by the Malaysian government, directed against the Hindu minority, curtailing their human rights including the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, and several other religious freedom concerns. Two weeks ago, police used tear gas and water cannons against peaceful demonstrations by an estimated 10,000 members of the ethnic Indian Hindu minority. Authorities sought to prevent the protests, locking down roads and parks in Kuala Lumpur and arresting suspected organizers. Over 700 protesters were gassed, beaten, and detained after taking refuge in the Batu Cave Temple in Kuala Lumpur. Police used similar violent tactics last month against demonstrators for electoral reform, including using tear gas against those seeking refuge at Kuala Lumpur’s Jamek mosque.

The demonstrations last week were organized to bring attention to the economic, social, and religious discrimination against the Indian minority in Malaysia, including the demolition and destruction of Hindu temples and shrines. Attempts by lawyers and activists to stop the destruction of temples have met with little success. In late October, authorities demolished the 100-year-old Maha Mariamman Hindu Temple and reportedly assaulted its Chief Priest. Just this week, the Sri Periyachi Amman Temple in Tambak Paya Village, Malacca was demolished by local authorities, despite having received a ‘stay order’ from state officials.

“Continued discrimination against members of the ethnic Indian Hindu minority, including the destruction of sacred places and images, only fuels religious unrest and intolerance,” said Commission Chair Michael Cromartie. “The Commission urges the U.S. government to raise the destruction of Hindu temples with Malaysian authorities and insist that immediate measures be taken to protect sacred sites and prevent further destruction.”

Police arrested three of the demonstration organizers: P. Waytha Moorthy, his brother and another associate. The three men were later charged in court with allegedly making seditious comments, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. A local court judge dismissed the charges against them on a technicality, but new charges may be filed at any time. In addition, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi threatened to employ the Internal Security Act (ISA) to prevent future demonstrations by Indian Hindus, a law that allows detention without trial for an extended period.

“We urge the U.S. government to raise the cases of the demonstration’s organizers and seek promises that no charges will be filed against them, including detentions under the ISA,” said Cromartie. “Malaysia should ensure that internationally protected rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion are protected.”

Demolitions of Hindu temples and shrines have increased markedly over the past several years, spurred by religious and political competition in the countryside and battles over eminent domain in the cities. Most demolitions have purportedly occurred due to the extension of expressways and other development projects in and around Kuala Lumpur. Mosques and some Christian churches either have received compensation or successfully diverted these projects, but Muslim politicians have ordered the destruction of Hindu statues and shrines on private property in the countryside, including the shrines erected by former migrant workers on land now owned by Muslims and by Hindus whose statues were visible from a busy highway.
Temple destructions are only one of the issues facing Malaysia’s religious minorities that the Commission is concerned about. With the support of many politicians, Malaysia’s sharia courts have expanded their jurisdiction in recent years, threatening secular Malaysia’s civil courts and the country’s commitment to religious pluralism. Because the Federal Constitution deems that all Malays are Muslim, the sharia courts have weighed in on a number of high-profile cases involving conversion, marriage, divorce, child custody, and burial rights of non-Muslims. In one prominent case from earlier this year, Malaysian authorities ordered a woman who was born to Indian Muslim parents but raised as a Hindu by her grandparents to spend 180 days in a “rehabilitation center” for the purpose of “re-embracing” her Islamic faith. Because she married a Hindu man, her child was also seized and custody given to her Muslim parents. In another prominent case, a Christian convert from Islam, Lina Joy, sought to change the religious status on her identification card in order to marry her Roman Catholic fiancé. After a nine year legal battle, her case reached Malaysia’s Supreme Court last June. The Court denied Lina Joy’s request, deciding that Malays cannot convert from Islam, at least not until the Federal Constitution is changed.

“Article 11 of Malaysia’s Federal Constitution protects every person’s right to profess, practice and propagate his religion, and should be applied to everyone,” said Cromartie. Malaysia’s government should be encouraged to protect fully the rights and freedoms of all its religious minorities. The rights of one religious group should not trump the most basic of all individual human rights, the right to follow one’s own conscience.”

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. An estimated 58% of the population are Muslim, 22.9 percent are Buddhist, 11.1 percent are Christian, 6.3 percent are Hindu and 2.6 percent practice Confucianism, Taoism, and other traditional Chinese religions.

http://www.uscirf.gov/mediaroom/press/2007/december/120507_malaysia_temples.html

US panel concerned at Malaysian temple destruction

2 days ago (AFP Report of Dec. 7, 2007)

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US Congress-appointed commission expressed concern Thursday at the destruction of Hindu temples and other alleged discrimination faced by religious minorities in predominantly-Muslim Malaysia.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the administration of President George W. Bush to raise the matter with Kuala Lumpur and "insist that immediate measures be taken to protect sacred sites and prevent further destruction."

The commission said it was "concerned" by recent Malaysian government actions against the ethnic Indian Hindu minority "curtailing their human rights, including the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

"Continued discrimination against members of the ethnic Indian Hindu minority, including the destruction of sacred places and images, only fuels religious unrest and intolerance," said commission chairman Michael Cromartie.

At least 8,000 ethnic Indians protested in the streets of Kuala Lumpur about two weeks ago to highlight racial and religious discrimination by the Muslim Malay-dominated government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The Hindu Rights Action Task Force, a Malaysian rights group which organized the rally, claimed one temple was being demolished every three weeks.

Police dispersed the crowd with water cannons and tear gas, and witnesses said some demonstrators were beaten with batons.

Abdullah accused ethnic Indian activists of stirring up racial conflict and threatened to use a draconian law to detain protestors indefinitely without trial.
The US commission, a non-partisan panel appointed by the US president and leaders of Congress, noted that in late October, Malaysian authorities demolished a 100-year-old temple and reportedly assaulted its chief priest.

Just this week, another temple in Malacca state was demolished by local authorities despite having received a "stay order" from state officials, the commission said.
It asked the Bush administration to get an assurance from the Malaysian authorities that no charges would be filed against the organizers of the demonstrations.
"Malaysia should ensure that internationally protected rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion are protected," it said.
The commission also said that Kuala Lumpur's Islamic courts have expanded their jurisdiction in recent years, threatening secular Malaysia's civil courts and the country's commitment to religious pluralism.

"Because the (Malaysian) constitution deems that all Malays are Muslim, the sharia courts have weighed in on a number of high-profile cases involving conversion, marriage, divorce, child custody, and burial rights of non-Muslims," it said.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jr-YlI6nDovUpmdp28oiaxVm0xrA

Now, gagging the media in Islamic republic of Malaysia

December 09, 2007 21:35 PM

Stop The Publicity For Hindraf, Pahang Sultan Tells The Media

ROMPIN, Dec 9 (Bernama) -- Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang said today the mass media should stop giving publicity altogether or excessive publicity to the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) as this would only make the activist group bolder and conceited.

He said it was not necessary for the mass media to idolise Hindraf so much so that reports on the group were seen almost regularly in the newspapers or on television.

"The media should not idolise Hindraf because when the media gives much publicity, they (Hindraf leaders) will think that we are worried about them but, as for me, they have caused much damage," he told reporters after looking at work to build a Bailey bridge to replace the concrete bridge across Sungai Pekin that was swept away by floods, here.

Supporters of Hindraf had staged an illegal assembly in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 25 in their quest to hand over a memorandum to the British High Commission in support of a class-action suit against Britain for bringing Indians to Malaysia as indentured labourers and exploiting them for 150 years.

They had also claimed that Indians in Malaysia are being marginalised and that the government had carried out ethnic cleansing of Indians.

Sultan Ahmad Shah said he was thankful that nobody from Pahang was involved in any of the activities organised by Hindraf.

He said the people should be grateful because the government has never neglected them but had provided them with all kinds of aid for their comfort.

"We know of no country in the world that is so peaceful and calm as ours, where the people are accorded various facilities by the government which has never shown favouritism," he said.

Sultan Ahmad Shah said the people should extend their cooperation and support to the government to enable it carry out various development projects.

The bridge over the Sungai Pekin provides the main road link to Felda Selancar 1 to 5, serving 25,000 people.

The temporary bridge is being built by 100 soldiers of the Royal Malay Regiment from Melaka, Johor and Pahang and is expected to be ready by dawn tomorrow. A new concrete bridge is to be built by March next year.

-- BERNAMA
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=301383