Sarawak Christians say a prayer for their brethren in Selangor
Nearly all churches in Sarawak today, and at yesterday's sunset mass, offered special prayers for fellow Christians in Selangor in view of the threat by some Muslim groups to hold rallies outside churches to protest the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims.
At the small All Saints Church in Tabuan, a teeming residential area in Kuching city, its Sunday service started with an unusual five-minute silence and special prayers for Christians in the West Malaysian state who are being hounded by the Selangor Islamic religious department (Jais) for their insistence to use the word Allah in their prayers.
Father Nelson Sinken, the parish priest, in his sermon later said the Jais raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia's premises in Damansara Kim last Thursday was a "test to all Christians" and the incident should make them stronger in their faith.
In the raid, Jais officers, backed by police, carted away hundreds of Bahasa Malaysia Bibles, the Al-Kitab, and the Iban language Bible, Bup Kudus.
The All Saints Church, which caters to the mainly Iban-speaking Christians in the Tabuan parish which includes the predominantly Iban Kampung Tabuan, and the residential areas of Tabuan Jaya, Tabuan Laru, Stutong and Hui Sing, uses the word Allah in all its prayers.
The Sunday service was as usual packed and the parishioners congregated without fear of any threat.
There was no policeman in sight nor, as one parishioner described, “any dodgy characters that have the potential to be trouble makers”.
Similar prayers were also held at the St Thomas' cathedral of the Anglican church and the Catholic church's St Joseph's cathedral, the Blessed Sacrement church in the Tabuan parish and the St Columbas Anglican church in Miri.
Alice Saiee said the church where she attended sunset mass yesterday, St Mark's Catholic church in Batu Kawa, also had a five-minute silence and offered special prayers for their Christian brethren in Selangor.
The 46-year-old clerk said parish priest Father Francis Lim touched on the raid on The Bible Society of Malaysia and called on Christians of all denominations in the state to work together with their brethren in the peninsula to “overcome” the religious persecution in Selangor peacefully.
She said Lim also called on Christians not to be afraid to stand up for their religious rights as spelled out under the constitution.
Christians in the state went to church without fear today as the state government had given its assurances that the situation in Selangor would not happen in the state.
“It will never happen (in Sarawak),” was the assurance given by the Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Office, Datuk Daud Abdul Rahman, yesterday.
Daud is also the minister in charge of Islamic matters in the state.
He called on Christians in the state not to be unduly worried and influenced by what was happening in the peninsula.
He also called on people of other religions to refrain from acts that could undermine the existing harmony among the various races and the religious tolerance that the state had long enjoyed.
Christianity came to Sarawak in 1847.
Anglican Church's missionaries, who came at the invitation of Rajah James Brooke, carried with them Bibles translated into Bahasa Indonesia.
The Iban, Sarawak’s largest ethnic group, makes up 52.6% of Christians in the state. – January 5, 2014.
