Christian leaders in the Muslim-majority nation have been targeted for propaganda by hardliners
Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said allegations from political rivals that her ministry’s program on harmony was meant for the evangelization of Muslim youth are baseless. (Photo: Hannah Yeoh’s Facebook page)
Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh dismissed allegations from political rivals that her ministry’s program to visit houses of worship of various faiths was meant to convert Muslim youths.
Yeoh, 43, a member of the ruling Democratic Action Party, refuted the allegations during a speech in parliament, Malay Mail reported on March 14.
She said the program Projek Article 11 by Impact Malaysia, a non-profit agency under the ministry, did not have any Muslim youths when the team members visited mosques and Sikh Gurdwara this month.
No Muslim youth has registered for a program to visit a church later this month, she noted.
Yeoh said that the program known as “Jom Ziarah” aims to promote a better understanding of the different races, religions, and cultures in Malaysia.
“Jom Ziarah is not a project that is organized to make all religions equal and is not intended to illustrate that all religions have the same standings, as what has been portrayed by certain quarters,” Yeoh was quoted as saying by Malay Mail.
The project is a combination of efforts to know the differences between religions, and to help people in Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society to live in harmony and tolerance, she said, adding that the program is an exercise of freedom of religion guaranteed in Malaysia’s Federal Constitution.
The lawmaker from Segambut, a constituency in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, reacted after Islamists and political rivals accused the program of evangelizing Muslim youth.
Badrul Hisham Shaharin, a blogger and former member of the People’s Justice Party who was reportedly sacked for defying party orders in 2016, slammed the Impact Malaysia event saying “Christian evangelist has started its work.”
He alleged in Facebook posts that a visit to a church in Klang city was the beginning of groundwork by evangelists.
“While religious preachers are being barred, an agency under a ministry headed by a DAP minister is looking to bring Muslim youths to church.”
In response, Yeoh lodged a police complaint against the Muslim politician on March 13 for spreading false information about the program, media reports say.
“So, accusing me of using agencies under the Youth and Sports Ministry for [evangelism] is an accusation that is overboard, and making me a punching bag to cover up charges that are being faced by their leaders,” she said in the parliament.
Meanwhile, Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden, a lawmaker from the Islamic Party of Malaysia or PAS criticized Yeoh and the ministry for the church visits by non-Christians.
“It is not wrong to learn about other religions, but to (specifically address) non-Christian youths, I feel, causes uneasiness in our community,” he told parliament on March 13, the Star reported.
This is not the first time Yeoh or Christian leaders in Malaysia have been targeted by Muslim politicians, activists, and Islamists.
Last year, Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff filed a defamation lawsuit against seven lawmakers from DAP including Yeoh after the MPs issued statements to rebuke him. Their criticism came after Yusoff accused Yeoh of using politics to propagate Christianity in the country.
The court rejected the lawsuit while accepting a defamation lawsuit from Yeoh against him.
In May 2021, Yeoh also filed a lawsuit against the former inspector-general of Malaysian police, Musa Hassan, who allegedly said she had been trying to turn Malaysia into a Christian country.
Both cases are still pending in the courts, reports say.
Christians make up about 10 percent of the estimated 32 million citizens in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
For years, Muslim radicals and Islamist politicians have spread anti-Christian propaganda in the country.
Until a court ruled in 2021, non-Muslims were legally banned to use the word “Allah.” The decades-long legal battle triggered violent protests and at least 11 churches were attacked.
That year, Muslim politician Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh told parliament that the Bible’s New Testament had been “corrupted by Christians over time” and so they did not reflect the true teachings of Jesus.
In 2016, politician Andul Hadi Awang from the Islamist Party of Malaysia penned an article where he accused Christian missionaries of “preying on poor and uneducated people” in impoverished communities in Malaysian states like Sabah and elsewhere by paying them off to convert to Christianity.
In 2014, an anonymous author published a controversial book, Pendedahan Agenda Kristian (Exposing the Christian Agenda), that labels Christians “the enemies of Islam” who harbor ill intentions and spread lies.
In 2021, a Facebook page called Hud Hud Crew published a doctored video that claimed Archbishop Julian Leow of Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese insulted Muslims in a speech.
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