inter religious council – possible?

so penang is thinking of setting up an inter religious council (IRC)? CM lim guan eng said this after meeting a delegation of PAS lead by the its president, abdul hadi awang.

he said that his decision was made after discussion with the leaders of DAP, PKR and PAS.

hmm… i have my doubts about this council being set up. do you remember the IFC – inter faith council which was initiated by the federal government but it never takes off because there were many muslims who opposed the setting up of IFC. there was even a anti IFC group started by some extremist muslim called BADAI (forgot what BADAI stand for – badan anti IFC?).

i remember in may 2006 when there was this forum on article 11 in penang, a mob (later we learned it was lead by BADAI) gathered outside the venue of the forum and protested against the forum, thinking it was about IFC. there were lots of anti IFC banner carried by them. later on although there were report lodged against BADAI, but nothing was done by the police… just as nothing was done against the SMS mob in an ipoh church! (we all know why eh. blatant double standard by police. why the recent report against LGE, police so quick to act?).

you see how passionately they are against IFC? do you think they will allow the proposed IRC to be set up in penang then? one use ‘faith’, one use ‘religious’ – same thing, isn’t it.

why are they so against the IFC? ahh… it’s that ketuanan melayu (malay supremacy) thingy again… only this time it is ketuanan islam. yep. they feel that islam is superior to all religions so why should islam come together with the other religions. islam is the official religion – yes that is true and i support it but islam is superior?

yes i sound pessimistic against the idea of IRC in penang but i really hope that it will take off. after all, guan eng said it has the support of PAS (btw, this BADAI group that protested against IFC during the article 11 forum were they from PAS or umno, i wonder). hadi himself had said that the setting up of the council is PAS’s approach of promoting fairness among all races or creed.

"This is the only way to go, as it is only via understanding each other and focussing on our strengths that we can move forward. As for Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the people have given us the mandate to work together and we will bank on our similarities to uphold justice for all Malaysians," he said.

all well and good. however, this is merely talk. let’s hope it is not NATO (no action, talk only). i really do want to see an inter religious council in penang.