US-Malaysia engagements on religious freedom

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KUCHING: Officials from the US State Department and its embassy had met with several Muslim and non-Muslim religious organisations, NGOs and government officials here to learn about trends affecting religious freedom in the country.

The various engagements were also to discuss possible areas of cooperation with the United States.

According to the 2014 International Religious Freedom Report released by the US State Department on Wednesday, its Special Representative to Muslim Communities had engaged government ministers, religious leaders and Muslim entrepreneurs on the issues of religious freedom and concerns about intolerance in the country.

Last year, US embassy officials, including its public affairs counsellor Bonnie Gutman and public diplomacy officer Angie Mizeur, visited the Islamic Information Centre (IIC) here to learn about its role in promoting unity and harmony among the people of Sarawak.

IIC is a model institution focused on promoting inter-religious education and harmony.

During an October visit to the state, embassy officials spoke to representatives from the government, opposition parties and NGOs about continued allegations of federal government-backed organisations offering money to indigenous communities in the rural areas to convert to Islam.

However, continued attempts by its embassy to meet with Federal government Islamic religious affairs departments on freedom of religious issues have been unsuccessful.

“US representatives maintained an active dialogue on religious freedom with government officials and leaders, and representatives of religious groups, including those not officially recognised by the government.

“The embassy’s continued engagement with government and religious organisations included dialogues and visitor exchanges to promote religious tolerance and freedom,” it stated in the report submitted by Secretary of State John Kerry on Oct 14 to the United States Congress.

The report summarised that Malaysia recognises the right to profess and practice religion, but also places limits on this right with the stated goal of promoting social harmony and protecting Islam as the official religion of the country.

The action of Islamic authorities, however, increasingly affected non-Muslims.

It explained that some government bodies are tasked with encouraging religious harmony and protecting the rights of minority religious groups, but none enjoy the power or influence of those that regulate Islamic religious affairs.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has made calls for moderation and tolerance being a key issue in his administration.

He is also the founder-patron of the government-linked think tank Global Movement of Moderates.

Najib announced a plan to expand the sedition law to cover denigrating Islam or other religions.

The report cautioned that society continued to become increasingly intolerant of religious diversity.

Moderate voices and opinions that differed from officially sanctioned positions on religious matters were sometimes met with violent aggression.

It cited the Molotov cocktail attack on a Christian church in Pulau Pinang in January last year over the ‘Allah’ issue, as well as the burning of an effigy of Father Lawrence Andrew – the editor of Catholic weekly Herald – that had failed a court battle to use the word ‘Allah’.

The report also highlighted that government’s protection and promotion of Sunni Islam had limited the religious freedoms of individuals of minority or officially disfavoured belief systems.

The law forbids proselytising of Muslims by non-Muslims, but allows and supports Muslims proselytising others.

Neither the right to leave Islam nor the legal process of conversion is clearly defined in law.

In the states of Perak, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Sarawak, syariah allows one parent to convert children to Islam without the consent of the second parent.

However, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri said the government is looking to amend the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976.

In January last year, Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) had raided the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) and confiscated more than 300 copies of Bibles with the word ‘Allah’ and arresting the society’s chairperson and a staff member.

The Attorney General’s Chambers closed the case in June, declining to prosecute BSM and instructing Jais to return the Bibles.

Other references included the disruption of weddings as well as a funeral in Pulau Pinang where Islamic authorities confiscated the body of the deceased whom they suspected to be Muslim.