Minos calls for return of seized Bibles

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KUCHING: PBB veteran Dato Peter Minos has joined the chorus of calls for the confiscated 300 Al-Kitab and 20 Bup Kudus to be returned to the Bible Society of Malaysia.

“The Christians must be unhappy over the seizure (of the Bibles), they can still try to forget and forgive if their most sacred books are given back to them. Continued seizure would only make feelings going from bad to worse.

“Hitherto, Malaysia is a beautiful country where there has been no open racial or religious misunderstanding but now things seem to go not so right. There are signs that things seem to be going wrong in the religious front and, by implications, the racial side. This is a cause for concern,” he said yesterday.

Minos, a socio-political analyst, also called the nation’s top leaders to step in to do something on the matter to prevent the country from sliding into serious trouble.

“Let common sense and wisdom prevail. We will not allow our hitherto happy nation going down the dumps of religious strife and conflict,” he said.

He also wondered why the people in the peninsula cannot see and follow the religious and racial tolerance of Sarawak. He said there was no need to create issue when there was none in the first place.

“Why allow a few to jeopardise the peace that we have so far ? Lest we forget or in need of a lesson, may we refresh our minds of what happened to multi-religious Lebanon a few years back. That once lovely nation imploded because of a serious religious strife, resulting in needless deaths and sufferings and near destruction of Lebanon.

“Of course that will not happen in Malaysia but we must not allow any growth of religious and racial hatred, if we can help it. Keep Malaysia safe and sound for that is what we all want,” he said.

He pointed out the nation’s top leaders must read the signs and do everything so that both racial and religious tolerance and understanding can be restored as soon as possible. There is no time to wait or to allow recriminations to go on and on, he added.

“In multi religious nations, people just have to exercise maximum restraint and tolerance and gracefully accept any difference. If people are too unyielding and too dogmatic on anything, the end result is always physical strife and conflict, as we can right now see in many countries.

“In a religious conflict, all are losers including those claiming righteousness and holiness of actions. So, religious strife must not and must never happen in the first place,” he explained.