01/19/2019 Malaysia (International Christian Concern) – Despite Malaysia being praised as among three countries globally that show “signs of hope” for Christians in 2019, as mentioned in Open Doors’ latest report, Malaysian Christians are not so sure about the progress.
National Evangelical Christian Fellowship chairman Eu Hong Seng believes it is too early to say that Christians are facing less discrimination in Malaysia.
In an interview with The Malaysian Insight, he said, “On the surface, Malaysian Christians seem to have more freedom to express their faith, but in reality they are still bound by certain rules and religious sensitivities.”
“If you think that things have improved as a result, that is just premature, because some of the major religious leaders and believers are still hostile toward churches and distrust us,” he added.
In fact, there is still no words on the whereabouts of Pastor Raymond Koh, Pastor Joshua Hilmi, and his wife Ruth, who were abducted for years. Also, radical Muslims often protest against the expression of Christian faith, as demonstrated in the latest Grace building case, where lights that look like a cross on a building sparked anger among some Muslims.
And for ethnic Malays, they are automatically noted as “Muslim” on their ID cards, even if they are of other faiths. Changing it to “Christian” is nearly impossible, and this as a result has caused a lot of social issues, especially for children with at least one Christian parents.
Christians are also not allowed to proselytize. Recently a group of Finnish Christians were arrested and deported for distributing Christian pamphlets.
For interviews with Gina Goh, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org.
