PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) - The cavernous pink Putra Mosque with its soaring minaret is one of the most commanding sights and popular tourist photo backdrops in the new city of Putrajaya.
-
(Photo: AFP / Teh Eng Koon, File)A Malaysian tourism flag is seen in front of the Petronas Twin Tower and the world's largest mobile ferris wheel, the ''Eye on Malaysia'' in Kuala Lumpur.
A house of worship for thousands of Muslims in the 8-year-old administrative capital of Malaysia, it is a showcase of the nation's dominant faith — Islam.
But the mosque also highlights the fact that Putrajaya doesn't have a single church or temple — a fact that minority Buddhists, Hindus and Christians see as one example of the second-class treatment other faiths get in this Muslim-majority country
Religious minorities have long complained about obstacles in getting the government's permission to build places of worship in Malaysia. But their frustrations have grown amid recent accusations by religious rights activists that authorities are destroying non-Muslim shrines, heating up racial bitterness that has simmered for decades beneath a veneer of multicultural harmony.
"There is much disillusionment" among non-Muslims, said P. Uthayakumar, a Hindu lawyer who has launched a court battle to prevent authorities from demolishing temples. "Every time a temple is demolished, the people's confidence is shaken further."
The issue of churches and temples is part of a wider debate in Malaysia regarding racial and religious rights. Majority ethnic Malays, who are exclusively Muslim, enjoy a host of privileges, while other groups struggle with issues such as a perceived lack of recourse when they get into legal disputes with Muslims over religious matters.
"The debate and conflict over places of worship for non-Muslims is one of the results of the radicalized communitarian politics," says Farish Noor, a Malaysian Muslim political analyst.
"Thus far the Malaysian government has been talking about being a government for all Malaysians, but sadly we see that the Malay-Muslim agenda still dominates politics at a major level."
Some observers say the destruction of temples reflects the government's failure under Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who took power in 2003, to curb attempts by some Malays to assert their influence and privileges.
Abdullah, who espouses a philosophy of progressive moderate Islam, warned in November that he would not allow anyone to "hijack Islam in Malaysia in order to breed intolerance and hatred."
However, there has been an increasing perception among non-Muslims over the past year that some politicians and religious authorities have become overzealous in trying to ensure that the status of Malays and their religion remains unthreatened.
Malaysia has not seen major racial violence since May 1969, when hundreds were killed in riots between Malay Muslims — two-thirds of the country's 26 million people — and ethnic Chinese who are 25 percent of the population.
Most Chinese are Buddhists or Christians. Ethnic Indians, the smallest minority, are largely Hindus.
Racial harmony between the three groups is a fine balance, maintained mainly because the minorities have not made a fuss about Islam's primacy, and are accepting and thankful for the relative freedom they have to practice their faith.
But critics say that although religious freedom is a constitutional right, minorities are being indirectly victimized by laws and arcane rules.
Among them, religious conversion of ethnic Malay Muslims is illegal; authorities have strict guidelines that limit the number of non-Muslim places of worship, partly based on whether there are enough non-Muslims in an area to justify having a church or temple. Continue >>
Comments