November 18, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Islamic scholar Dr Mohd Asri Zainul
Abidin sniped at Selangor PAS leader Datuk Dr Hasan Ali today for
“insulting Muslims” by claiming they would be influenced by Christians
using high-tech devices to proselytise to them.
“It is an insult to Muslims and the Islamic faith. As if Muslims who listen to Bible readings would eventually be swayed.
“This is as if the Bible’s influence surpasses that of the al-Quran,” Asri (picture) said in a statement to The Malaysian Insider.
The former Perlis mufti added Hasan’s remarks were unsuitable as they had come from a person living in the age of technology.
“These days all readings, whether the al-Quran or the Bible, can be sourced from the Internet.
“All sorts of gadgets, whether the computer or others, can be used to download these readings,” he pointed out.
Asri said by publicising the matter, Hasan was indirectly promoting the reading of the Bible to those of other faiths.
“But even then, it is not an offence. The world is not a closed one.
Those who hear and evaluate for themselves can find the truth they seek.
“The role of religion in this era is not as a blockade but to help explain and educate in a mature manner,” he said.
Hasan, the Selangor executive councillor in charge of religion, said
yesterday that evangelical Christians were using high-tech devices such
as solar-powered talking bibles to proselytise to Malay Muslims in the
state.
He said the state’s religious authority (Jais) had discovered that
Christian missionaries were now spreading their gospel through
technologically-advanced means apart from setting up welfare groups
providing cash and other financial aid to single mothers and the
destitute.
He added that Jais’s research showed Christian evangelists were
spreading their faith to young Muslim students in free tuition classes
and counselling sessions, besides distributing Christian pamphlets in
public places, homes, universities and places that were ostensibly
called “community centres”.
According to a website called Book of Joe, the palm-sized radio-like
device contains all the books in the New and Old Testaments and is
fitted with batteries that will run for almost 10 hours before needing
to be recharged, whether by the sun, a light bulb or a nine-volt AC
adapter. It costs only US$99.95 (RM310).
This latest disclosure, after the controversial August 3 raid by
Selangor Islamic authorities on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church
(DUMC) in Petaling Jaya, could trigger another Christian-Muslim
conflict.
Christian leaders have consistently denied claims that they are
attempting to convert Muslims, but relations between the two creeds with
roots in the Middle East continue to smoulder in multi-religious,
multi-cultural Malaysia where the religion of the federation is Islam as
stated in the Federal Constitution.
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