Anti-Christianisation seminars organised in the name of helping to strengthen one’s faith in Islam have actually restricted the religion’s growth in Malaysia, said a local think-tank.

Responding to the seminar held at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Lendu campus in Malacca on Saturday, Islamic Renaissance Front director Ahmad Farouk Musa said its main purpose appears to be creating a “siege mentality” among Malay-Muslims and students in particular.

“The consequence of such events would be creating further discord, disharmony and distrust against another religion.

“I do not think that promoting such a mentality would help when Malaysia is moving forward towards achieving a developed nation status by the year 2020,” Farouk told Malaysiakini.

In comparison, he said a larger number of people are now embracing Islam in countries that allows “healthy competition” among religions.

Farouk cited findings from a Pew Research Centre global study on the future of world religions, released in April, that Islam has been identified as the fastest growing faith in the world, based on demographic projections from 2010 to 2050.

Aside from natural population growth, the study also takes into account factors of "switching" (conversion) between religions in its projections.

According to the study, Christians will remain the largest religious group but Islam will be growing faster than any other major religion over the next four decades.

As a result, Muslims in 2050 are expected to make up more than 50 percent of the population in 51 countries, two more than in 2010, as both the Republic of Macedonia and Nigeria are projected to gain Muslim majorities.

This trend for conversion is, however, less prevalent in countries such as Malaysia where the practice of Islam is regulated by the state, Farouk said.

He said the alleged "threat" of Christianisation in Malaysia has also been used by certain quarters in power as a tool to ensure that they remained in power.

“Since they consider themselves to be the vanguard of Islam, dislodging them from the apex of power would weaken the Muslims, or so they say,” Farouk added.

In the absence of statistics to back up claims of “threats” to the Muslim faith, he also noted that there have been attempts to “manipulate” the number of apostasy cases in Malaysia and justify the need to hold such seminars.

'No conversion from Islam'

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom in a written reply to Parliament last year said 4,520 people converted to Islam in the Federal Territories between 2008-2012.

He said that based on Syariah Court records, no Muslim converted out of Islam in the same period in the Federal Territories.

He said figures for conversions outside of the Federal Territories are recorded by the respective states’ Islamic affairs authorities or councils.

A picture of the seminar at UiTM posted online shows a slide presentation with the title 'Ancaman Gerakan Pemurtadan Kristianisasi' (Threat of Christian Proselytisation Movement).

A participant who spoke to Malaysiakini on condition of anonymity said the seminar touched on the usage of "Allah" in the Bible, the pope, Christians in Indonesia and the Crusades.

The speaker told them that Christians are trying to convert Muslims by using the 3Gs – “ gold, glory and gospel ”, the participant said.

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