I refer to ' Catholic newsletter warned to stay off politics' reported in The Star today. PUTRAJAYA: The Catholic newsletter Herald may have its permit suspended if it goes ahead and publishes an editorial on the Permatang Pauh by-election.
An official with the Home Ministry’s publication control and al-Quran text division said this was because an editorial on the by-election was a topic under current affairs and politics.
“This clearly goes against the conditions of their permit which should only centre on their religion and religious activities. It will earn the Herald another warning letter and probably, even a suspension,” he said in an interview here yesterday.
He said the ministry was not satisfied with their answers to a show-cause letter as they were “clearly going against the conditions of their permit” by continuing to publish various articles, some of which were related to Islam.
The division had recently issued a show-cause letter to the Herald, which has a circulation of 12,000 in copies of English, Bahasa Malaysia, Tamil and Chinese, for allegedly publishing articles relating to politics.
The letter also alleged that the newsletter had breached its permit conditions.
Its editor, Father Lawrence Andrew, has denied the allegations and said that its next issue would carry an editorial on the Permatang Pauh by-election.
Father Lawrence urged the ministry to not make any assumption as they had yet to see the editorial in question.
“The editorial is only asking people to pray for a just and fair by-election. Can't we Christians ask fellow Christians to pray? Is that against the law?” he asked when contacted yesterday.
Shouldn't this be applicable to all religion? Why only confine this to Catholic when what we experience daily is a continuation of political parties using the religion Islam as a tool to meet their personal political interest? There was no challenge made at any one time by any party against the fact that Islam remain the official religion of this country. So why the need to politicise religion? Why is it so difficult for these hypocrites of the highest order, to respect the freedom of others practising their own Faith without any restriction? And in what way would all these intimidating actions of theirs contribute to the goodness of Islam in general?
This is pure Absurdity, creation of people with narrowed mentality, beyond logic.
Just Keep All Religion Away from Politics.
3 comments:
I really wonder... this home ministry is so full of puke, they do not even know where the line is... to be honest.. where is the line? Increase in cost of living affects everyone.. unless you are a crony.. so it affects Catholics, Muslims etc. Is it wrong then to write about affairs affecting the people of the faith?
Can't the people of the faith calls upon their people to pray for the country? I mean.. is that being subversive? One thing is for sure, BN today is afraid of their own shadows and it is showing.
Me not being a religious person, I don't know how much truth there is in what I'm about to say, but it has always been my belief that there is no religion in this world that asks their believers to keep away from social responsibilities.
I've said it many times on my blog, that politics and society are not as seperate as we would like to believe.
Religion, I believe has some sort of responsibility over society, especially more so over their own community. So there can never be very a very clear-cut line as to what is religion, and what is not.
Perhaps the question we should be asking the newsletter is whether this is the first time they have published an article related to the current political scene at any material time.
Is the Home Ministry extra-sensitive only because it has to do with Anwar Ibrahim and the Permatang Pauh seat?
Religion does not encourage ignorance. To manually blindfold oneself from THE biggest by-election of the year is to be painfully ignorant. God, no matter which, would certainly not be happy.
Michelle,
Guess we both shared the same view on Faith.
Check out who i really am on this post 'what my life’s journey has taught me thus far…' posted in May.
Disillusioned by real life experiences.
Thanks for dropping by.
One advice for you: Don't be swing from your belief by people who posted comments on your blog. Lots of shit stirrers out there.
Say what you believe.. What really matters is your Conscience remains Clear.
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