PAS MP visits shah alam church

UPDATED:  this news also appeared in the malaysian insider.
tony yew, active member of bangsa malaysia and whom i had met before, is from the shah alam church. he had blog on this too.
anil netto has put up the video.

ORIGINAL POST

yep, that’s the heading on the front page of the herald dated 6 april 2008. it started off with:

shah alam: the church of the divine nercy took 26 years to get government approval, but welcomed the new member of parliament in its premises soon after its election.

yep. 26 years. the shah alam church, some of you might remember had a long interesting history of how it was finally approved by the umno government, after they (the church) had been given the run-around here and there. if you are not aware of the history and would like to know, you can visit the archive of the catholic asian news to read about it.

ok coming back to the herald’s report, it was the newly elected shah alam MP from PAS, YB khalid abdul samad who offered to meet the church members for a dialogue session on march 27. about 350 people, almost all from the church (whom they are known as ‘parishioners’).

it was an interesting dialogue session, especially reading what khalid abdul had to say. at the Q&A time, when one parishioner asked khalid about the use of the word ‘allah’, he said it is okay to use it (just like what azmi sharom said at the islamisation in malaysia forum).

the problem here again is the ignorance within the muslim community itself, thanks to BN. you have to give us some time to educate the muslims. we have 50 years of ignorance to repair.

that was what he said in response to the use of the word ‘allah’… but not before he explained how the word ‘allah’ came to be.

when one parishioner complained that a cross was not allowed to be erected on the church’s roof, khalid said:

as for the cross, i see no reason why there cannot be one. it’s probably back to basics with the BN government trying to show they are religious not knowing what being religious is all about.

i will post the full report when the herald’s issue of 6 april went online (probably on sunday or monday). you should read it and see for yourself how open the PAS MP is. it’s good to note that not even a month after the election, khalid, the PAS MP had agreed for a dialogue session at the church, while all these 50 years  the umno gomen had choose to ignore the church. do come back on monday to read the full report (with pictures) to find out what khalid had to say, especially his subtle attack at the BN (which i find very true!).