The Seremban church which came under fire from Islamist NGO Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) for promoting its upcoming Easter pageant with Bahasa Malaysia buntings and banners has responded by saying it was following the law by using the national language in its promotional announcements.
Agape Community Church assistant pastor Tan Szet Anne explained the promotional material for the church’s Easter musical scheduled to take place from April 18 to 20 had to be produced in Bahasa Malaysia due to a directive by the Seremban city council stating that banners and posters must be in the national language.
“We have been organising this musical to commemorate Easter with a musical every two years for the past 20 years and there was never an issue.
“And because it is the law which can be found on the local council’s website, we put up the posters and banners in Malay,” she told The Malaysian Insider.
Tan said church members discovered that posters at the main road leading to their church and banners put up in Seremban had been removed.
“We are not going to lodge any police report over the matter because all those we want to inform about our musical now know about it.
“The musical is only three days away, and the town folk are familiar with our musical anyway,” she said.
ISMA claims the Agape Community Church’s decision to promote its Easter celebration this weekend in Bahasa Malaysia was suspicious, as it was supposedly not the most commonly used language among Chinese and Indians, who are the main races practicing Christianity in Seremban.
The head of ISMA’s Seremban chapter, Zamani Ibrahim said in a “report” on the group’s website that while freedom of religion for non-Muslims was guaranteed by the Federal Consitution, the use of Bahasa Malaysia to promote an event outside the church compound was an abuse of this liberty.
“The majority of Christians in this country are from the two races. The main language they use among themselves is English. Therefore, it raises questions why the posters promoting the Easter musical are in Malay,” he said.
It was recently learnt that Isma was one of the groups that is funded by the federal government, which has ironically been promoting a moderate stance internationally.
Tan, however, said they held “no grudge” against Isma.
“We recognise that it is just a certain section of people who have criticised us but it does not affect us or our musical because we haven’t done anything against the law,” she said.
Tan said the church would not request for any additional security from the police for the musical event, adding that she hoped there would not be any disturbance.
“We just want to carry on with our musical which is to commemorate Easter,” she said.
See Also: An Islamist group thinks an Easter pageant in Bahasa Malaysia will convert Muslims
Story: The Malaysian Insider
