CCM voices concern over controversial seminar at UiTM

May 15, 2014

PETALING JAYA: The Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) is concerned about a controversial seminar held at a local university, which touched on the word “Allah” and Christianity.

Council of Churches of Malaysia general-secretary Rev Dr Hermen Shastri (pic) said in a statement on Thursday that inter-faith discourse in the country was becoming more unhelpful in promoting mutual understanding and respect.

In the forum held at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) on Tuesday, it was reported that an Indonesian speaker had allegedly said Christians were betraying God unless they became Muslims.

Dr Hermen claimed that the speakers at the forum apparently wanted to promote bigoted religious views.

“The authorities at UiTM have allowed for such seminars at their premises, which indicates that the academic authorities were willing to tolerate and perhaps even promote a certain brand of religious teaching or to promote a certain agenda,” he alleged.

Dr Hermen also lamented that the Government has been “consistently lethargic” in countering interfaith discourse that fringe on extremism.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia chairman Rev Dr Eu Hong Seng said the federation supported academic freedom and the right of a public university to organise lectures on any topic.

“However, academic freedom and public university facilities should not be used to present and promote skewed statements with no opportunity for rebuttal of facts,” he said.--The Star