Peace lover

Here’s an article from The Star today:

It was a Jais intrusion, says church

PETALING JAYA: The Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) maintained that the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) had trespassed on its premises last week.

DUMC senior pastor Dr Daniel Ho reiterated that Jais and police officers had entered its Dream Centre without a search warrant.

“They intruded into the thanksgiving dinner, interrupted the programme (and) took photographs and videos when they came in.

“The Jais and police officers did exit the hall but remained in the corridor, still taking videos.

“Jais officers (also) issued several warnings to the organisers for refusing to cooperate,” Dr Ho said yesterday, rebutting a statement from Jais director Marzuki Hussin on Thursday.

Marzuki had said they had not raided the church but had entered after obtaining permission from the organisers.

He said Jais was merely conducting a “check” to look for Muslims at the Aug 3 event at 9.45pm, which is provided for under the Syariah Criminal Enactment (Selangor) 1995.

Marzuki maintained that the enforcement officers did not act aggressively or trespassed that night.

Damansara Utama Methodist Church

My question is, are they allowed to conduct this kind of RAID or “check” (as stated by JAIS) in other religious event? How much power do they have to simply walk in on worship premises and conduct the unwarranted raid? If so, can our priests conduct similar raid in any mosque around Malaysia? This is humiliating and it gives great concern to all non Muslim in Malaysia.

The strongest condemnation came from the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism,, an interfaith group that said in a prepared release that it “unreservedly condemns the unwarranted raid... which clearly breached the constitutionally guaranteed, and internationally recognized, sanctity of a holy place of worship – an event which has been confirmed by the Malaysian AIDS Council to have been organized to raise funds.” The religious police’s action, the council said, “sets a dangerous precedent which must be stopped and condemned by all peace-loving Malaysians. The constitutionally guaranteed and internationally recognized sanctity of all places of worship cannot be compromised, and this unprecedented violation must be investigated and those responsible, appropriately punished.”

The statement also questioned whether any people had been asked to convert, as the newspapers reported, and demanded that: “If the newspapers in question are found to have published false statements likely, or meant, to incite religious or racial hatred between Malaysians, the authorities must initiate the necessary action to punish them to the full extent provided for in our laws.”