A holy book treated like political propaganda
While the government has agreed to the release of the shipments, in the face of pressure from church leaders and politicians, the condition imposed amounts to a defacement of the Holy Book.
By uppercaise
Govt order to place KDN stamp on Malay-language Bible
The very real anti-Christian bigotry that exists at high levels of Malaysian society has resurfaced once more with news of a government order to place a Home Ministry stamp on 35,000 volumes of the Holy Bible published in the Malay-language.
The stamp is a condition for the release of the 35,000 volumes, imported from Indonesia and which have been impounded at two ports.
Photo: MalaysiaKini
While the government has agreed to the release of the shipments, in the face of pressure from church leaders and politicians, the condition imposed amounts to a defacement of the Holy Book.
“At 5pm [on Wednesday], KDN informed Bible Society of Malaysia that they had already chopped the bibles and asked Bible Society of Malaysia to come collect the bibles,” the importer said in a statement to Malaysian Insider. “Bible Society of Malaysia is alarmed by the defacement of the Christian bible by non-Christians chopping it with words that the Christians have not accepted or agreed to,” it added.
The Bible Society of Malaysia has refused to collect the shipment of 5,100 volumes of the Bible impounded for two years at Port Klang. The Christian Federation of Malaysia, which groups the main Protestant, evangelical and Catholic churches, is meeting to decide on further action in the face of KDN’s demands.
That KDN, the home ministry, has seen fit not only to impose conditions but to actually stamp its seal on the cover of the Holy Bible, reflects a very hardline anti-Christian attitude and repressive conservatism within the ministry’s book imports and Quranic texts division.
Read more at: http://uppercaise.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/holy-book-as-political-propaganda/
