your say 'An inspection visit would not require the company of a team of police. It would not disrupt the dinner function.'

No force used in 'inspection visit', says Jais

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: Looking at it objectively - Jais (Selangor Islamic Affairs Department) has a statutory duty to enforce the law and the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) has to explain why there was a need to sing the ‘Allhamdulillah' and ‘Allahuakbar' songs, the need to conduct a quiz on Islam (if that occurred), and whether any prayers were said invoking the name of Allah?

An NGO fundraising or thanksgiving dinner does not need to have any of these religious elements since Harapan Komuniti claims to be non-religious.

Let us all Christians and Muslims alike respect the constitution and each other's faith. Stop all the finger-pointing and politicising.

Let Jais prepare its report and DUMC give an explanation. The 12 Muslims present ought to clarify the matter by giving their statements to Jais in the presence of their lawyers.

While Christian charity is welcomed, there must be no subtle inducements placed on Muslims and others like Hindus and Buddhists to convert. Conversion is about faith and free will.

Ferdtan: Jais director Marzuki Hussin, are you sure that your Jais enforcement officers told you the truth - that no force was used during the raid?

In The Star report, you told the palace and the state government that you were not aware of the church raid.

This raid was so sensitive, with many political and religious implications, and yet you, the director of Jais, was not even informed by your subordinates. You should be angry with your men for not letting you know of the raid in advance. Or was it organised by higher-ups in Putrajaya, that even the head of Jais was bypassed?

So don't play dumb with us - and try to whitewash the image of Jais - when you don't seem to be in control. If I were you, I would resign if the errant Jais officers were not sacked for insubordination.

Liew Lean Kut: With such a big operation, I am sure the raid would have been videotaped. Jais should show the video to the people and also present the proof that those people are actually trying to convert Muslims. Let the people judge.

DannyLoHH: When you appear with the police in a large group with the intention of enforcing your "department's authority to enforce laws on Muslims", it is not an "inspection visit". It is a raid.

An inspection visit would not require the company of police. It would not disrupt the dinner function, and there would no taking down of information of Muslims present. Jais should come clean already with their so-called evidence.

Anonymous_40dc: I'm not at all surprised if some Christians are attempting to convert the Muslims. My workmate, who is a Methodist, once tried to preach Christianity to me.

Louis: Anonymous_40dc, to tell you the truth, it is very hard to be a Christian in Malaysia. Christians have to be very careful in their actions and words, lest they would fall on the wrong side of the law.

You may have a case. Your workmate might have told you a thing or two in the course of a conversation over religion, and you took it as trying to proselytise your goodself.

Do your know that it is very easy to frame a Christian or a church? Just get hold of a copy of a Bible and claim that it was given to you. All hell will break loose.

The issue at hand is no different. Mere presence of Muslims in a church compound was deemed as an attempt to spread Christianity.

Swipenter: You need a bunch of 30 Jais officers and police officers to do a ‘inspection visit' of a fund-raising event and even had the audacity to go through the dustbins looking for evidence of proselytisation.

Just imagine one day, Muslims visiting the private homes of non-Malays and finding a group of Jais officers and police officers knocking on the host's door to do a "inspection visit".

Kee Thuan Chye: Why should the Muslims who attended the dinner have to attend Jais counselling sessions? What wrong have they done? What law did they break? There's no law that forbids Muslims from attending a dinner with non-Muslims, is there? This whole affair has bad intent written all over it.

Tholu: "Marzuki said officers from Jais and the police negotiated with the organiser, NGO Harapan Komuniti, prior to the ‘inspection'."

This does not seem to jibe with the organisers claim that they requested the Jais officers if they had any warrant and despite repeated requests, Jais officers refused to hand them any warrant to search or arrest.

They proceeded into the hall and took photos and videos and even removed pamphlets from the various drawers and cabinets in the hall, without any permission from the organisers or the landlord of DUMC's premises.

Who is telling the truth and who is lying is anybody's guess. Despite taking such a long time to respond to public criticism, this is all they can come up with. What a shame.

Flabergasted: It looks as if Muslims caught attending any dinner function organised by non-Muslims during Ramadan will have their details taken and asked to attend Jais counselling sessions.

Can Marzuki explain just what the counselling is all about? The Jais action, whether or not its officers gatecrashed the Harapan Komuniti function, has put a brake on efforts to smoothen relationships among the various religions, particularly between Muslims and Christians.

Just read some of the letters in the newspapers - Muslims telling how they attended wedding and funeral services in churches and Christians telling how they took part in functions organised by Muslims, which included the saying of the doa and so on.

What a pity, we have so-called leaders today who are bent on undoing the wonderful friendships/camaraderie we all enjoyed in our younger days.

 

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