KL quiets tensions with interfaith body

KL quiets tensions with interfaith body

JAKARTA (JP): A Malaysian scholar believes his ethnically and
religiously diverse country has escaped major religious conflicts
in the last hundred years because rumblings of discord are
handled in their early stages.

Tan Sri Dato Seri Dr. Ahmad Sarji bin Abdul Hamid told a
seminar on Islam and the West here yesterday that minor isolated
incidents which occurred in predominately Moslem Malaysia never
escalated into riots on a national scale.

Sarji is chairman of the Institute of Islamic Understanding
Malaysia.

He attributed this to the government dealing with sensitive
religious and ethnic issues in an approach that effectively
nipped problems in the bud.

"We always try to avoid conflagration of any problems," he
said in the seminar jointly organized by the British Council,
Yayasan 2020, the Goethe Institute and Friedrich-Nauman Stiftung.

He discussed the solution which was used when a Moslem
community complained about noise from a Hindu temple.

"Our solution (was) not to burn the temple down, but to ask
the Hindu community to move to another place and the government
(would) provide the land."

The issues are handled by an interfaith council called the
Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus
and Sikhs, which was established in 1983.

Sarji said Malaysia was often cited as a pluralistic society
exhibiting religious tolerance.

Moslems greet members of other communities on their particular
holidays, like Christmas or the Chinese New Year, he said, and
vice versa. Holidays of the different religions and ethnic
communities are included in the official government calendar.

"We also visit other believers' funerals and church weddings.
But, in line with Islamic teaching, we don't pray during the
occasions," he said.

He was unsure if the ulema were as receptive to such
practices.

"I suspect the ulema don't do it, but they are the minority.
And the fact that the ulema also enjoy these holidays is already
a degree of acquiescence," he said to the about 40 participants,
most of whom were intellectuals and university lecturers.

Sarji said non-Moslems Malaysians were beginning to put their
faith in Islamic financial services.

"Although the Islamic financial facilities are mainly
subscribed to by the Moslems, non-Moslems are also beginning to
show a great interest in them," Sarji said.

He added that more than 50 percent of the customers of the
Islamic Bank of Malaysia were non-Moslems.

The Vision 2020 Unit Trust Scheme, administered by Moslems, is
another example, he said. The majority of 60 percent of the
830,000 unit holders in the scheme are non-Moslems.

Malaysia has established many Islamic financial institutions
and instruments, he said, citing the Islamic banking services,
Takaful insurance schemes, the Pilgrims Management Fund, Islamic
mortgage and leasing facilities and Islamic unit trusts and
securities. Islamic-managed counters at the Kuala Lumpur Stock
Exchange have also been established. (hbk)