The constant fear Malaysian Muslims have of Islam being attacked in the country where they are the majority is a legitimate fear, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today (18 Feb 2014).
The still influential former prime minister also accused
the Malaysian Christian community of deliberately testing the tolerance of
their Muslim countrymen by insisting on using “Allah” to call their God, reports
The Malay Mail Online.
“It is a legitimate fear; if we lose our influence on the
country, obviously lots of things which are offensive to Muslims will be found
here,” he told reporters after officiating the Global Peace Foundation Chair
for Global Peace at the International Islamic University Malaysia here.
Dr Mahathir said the respect Malaysians have for
traditional values and customs will disappear should Malays lose political
power and backed calls by certain Malay and Muslim rights groups here to rally
to defend Islam.
“All this while, during the British time and after
independence, it was agreed that the word ‘Allah’ should not be used in the
Christian text. But now you purposely bring it up and make all kinds of
claims so as to agitate people and the reaction to that is for them to object,
“This is a reaction to the way people treat Islam in this
country today. They have no more respect for Islam, they do things that would
be objectionable to Islam and suddenly they come up with this idea that they
should call their god ‘Allah’ as well, which is very confusing,” he said.
To illustrate his point, he cited neighbouring Singapore,
where he claimed non-Muslims there are less sensitive and considerate to
Muslims.
“We see in Singapore for example, while it is not
forbidden for us to sit and eat when others are eating pork, but traditionally
we don’t allow that.
“But in Singapore, they say so long as you don’t eat, you
can put a roast suckling pig in front, but for Malays, this is something they
cannot accept,” Dr Mahathir said.
FULL REPORT HERE.
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