Malaysia

“May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun.

Then all nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed.”

(Psalm 72:17 NIV)

The High Court (third-highest in the land after the Federal Court and Court of Appeal) in Malaysia has overturned a ruling made in 1986 to prohibit the use of the word ‘Allah’ in any non-Muslim worship and literature.

This follows a lawsuit that was launched almost 13 years ago in 2008 when an indigenous Christian woman, Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, had eight CDs confiscated on return to the country because  the name ‘Allah’ was contained in the recordings.

Jill Ireland’s lawyer challenged the confiscation as an infringement of “the fundamental freedom of religious rights for non-Muslims” enshrined in Malaysia’s constitution.

Christians in Malaysia mainly worship in English, Tamil or various Chinese dialects, and call upon God in those languages. However, for some Malay-speaking Christians living on the island of Borneo (which is divided between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei), the only word in their worship and literature for ‘God’ is ‘Allah’. Bahasa Malaysia is the Malay language used in Malaysia; Bahasa Indonesia is the variant used in Indonesia; in the latter, ‘Allah’ is an unproblematic term for ‘God’. It is from Indonesia that Borneo Christians obtain much of their Christian worship material and literature.

The word ‘Allah’ comes from Arabic, and Christian Malay speakers argue that they have used the word as far back as the 1600s in their Bibles, songs and prayers, long before the 1986 ruling. Malaysia is the only country to have banned the use of the word ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims; it is used in other Muslim countries which have a large Christian population, such as Indonesia. Jill Ireland had brought her CDs into Malaysia from Indonesia.

In the 1986 ruling, the Malaysian Home Ministry had prohibited the use of the word in any non-Muslim publications, along with three other words with Arabic origins. These were ‘Kaabah’, which refers to Islam’s holiest shrine in Mecca, ‘Baitullah’, meaning house of God, and ‘solat’, meaning prayer.

In the High Court’s overturning of the 1986 ruling, the judge stated that the Cabinet under the Prime Minister of the time, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, had not in fact banned the use of the four words and that the Home Ministry had overstepped its authority. The Home Ministry had claimed that using ‘Allah’ would cause confusion among Muslims and could subsequently lead to conversion to other religions. Rather, the Cabinet’s policy recommendation had been to allow the word ‘Allah’ to be used in Christian materials as long as they indicate clearly that they are “Untuk Agama Kristian” (for the Christian religion).

In Malaysia, Muslims comprise around 61 percent of the population of more than 32 million, and Christians comprise around 13 percent.

Home Group Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank you for the judgement made in Malaysia to allow Malay-speaking Christians to worship your Holy Name in the language of their choosing. We thank you that the religious freedoms enshrined in the constitution have been upheld and that your Name can be used in their Bibles, songs and prayers.

We pray for those around the world who are forced to worship your Name in secret. Please be with those who risk everything in order to share your Word and make your Name known to Christians and non-Christians in persecuted lands.

We thank you for our own freedom to worship you, and ask you to soften the hearts of those who persecute Christians wherever they are in the world, that they may know your redeeming love.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen.

 

 

 

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my saviour — from violent people you save me.”
(2 Samuel 22:2–3)

The NGO Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (aka Suhakam) is to resume its inquiry into whether the 2016 disappearance of Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife, Ruth Sitepu, was an “enforced disappearance” — that is to say, whether state agents were involved in abducting them.

The family of Ruth said they were encouraged by Suhakam’s commitment to the inquiry: “This public inquiry is our hope of finding our sister Ruth and brother-in-law Joshua.”

Joshua, a Malay from Taiping, Perak who converted to Christianity from Islam, and Ruth, a Batak Christian from Indonesia, were last seen on 30 November 2016 and reported missing on 6 March 2017. The inquiry resumes as their families fear that the government has been delaying efforts to uncover the truth.

Suhakam commissioner, Jerald Joseph, said that they would finalise the dates for the inquiry’s resumption with stakeholders and lawyers after confirming the easing of restrictions enforced in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that they had planned for 15 days for the inquiry, but this was an estimate that depended on how the inquiry developed.

Before it was postponed because of the restrictions, the inquiry had heard from a witness that the couple were intending to flee the country after receiving threatening phone calls and emails over Joshua’s alleged preaching of Christianity to Muslims and baptizing those who convert. The inquiry also learnt that Hilmy had been baptizing converts since 2011, usually in bathrooms using a showerhead and once in a pond.

Muslim citizens of Malaysia are prohibited from converting to other religions unless they receive the consent of a Shariah court. Islam is the country’s official religion.

Suhakam commissioned a similar inquiry to probe the separate disappearances of Pastor Raymond Koh and social activist Amri Che Mat. They reported their findings in April 2019 — both men were victims of enforced disappearances. They had been abducted by the Special Branch, an intelligence unit of the Royal Malaysia Police.

Suhakam said it was likely that Joshua and Ruth had disappeared for the same reason. Police have denied this allegation.

More than 9 percent of Malaysia’s population of 31.5 million are Christians.

Home Group Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

These are difficult times, Lord, even for those of us who are free to worship you without persecution. How much more do your sons and daughters suffer for you in countries like Malaysia, where they must endure bias, hatred, violence and even abduction and death at the hands of those who do not know you.

Lord, we ask you give your faithful in Malaysia an extra dose of your divine peace, strength, fortitude, grace and love to withstand the onslaught of these spiritual, emotional and physical slings and arrows. Lord, endow them with supernatural capacity and ability to stand up to their attackers, knowing you are there with them, Lord, and you are their eternal refuge and fortress and saviour.

Lord, we also ask you touch the hearts of the persecutors, that the scales might fall from their eyes, that they might see you through those they persecute and be convicted of their sinful ways, and cry out and fall to the ground worshipping you as the One True God. And unite this divided land as only you can, oh God.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

“Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes”(Isaiah 5:18 ESV)

Three years after Malaysian pastor Raymond Koh went missing in broad daylight, the family filed a civil suit against the government and senior officials. His wife, Susanna Liew, said they had no other option but to turn to the courts to get justice in order to resolve the investigations into her husband’s disappearance. The suit named two former national police chiefs and 11 other defendants at the Kuala Lumpur High Court as the family observed the third anniversary of Pastor Koh’s abduction in February 2017.

The lawsuit comes four months after a similar one was filed in November 2019 by Norhayati Mohd Ariffin, the wife of activist Amri Che Mat, who has been missing since December 2016. Amri, co-founder of the Perlis Hope charity, left his home to meet a friend late one night in November 2016; the next morning, his car was found abandoned with its windscreen smashed. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) has just begun its investigation into the disappearance of another pastor, Joshua Hilmy, and his wife, Ruth Sitepu.

In a statement, Susanna Liew said if the police and their intelligence agency, the Malaysian Special Branch, had been capable of solving the murder of Kim Jong Nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in a week, they should be capable of solving her husband’s disappearance. To this day, Liew has not received any ransom demands.

“Our hope is slowly fading, but because of faith in God, we still hang on. I believe Raymond is still alive and detained somewhere and we want them to be released as soon as possible. It is too long for the family to go on like that,” she said.

Pastor Koh founded Harapan Komuniti (Hope Community) in Kuala Lumpur, a charity that helps the poor, single mothers, and drug addicts. Security cameras captured footage of a group of men in tactical gear abducting him on a public road in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. Prior to this, the pastor had received a box of bullets in the mail, warning him to stop his work. Nevertheless, he persisted in his ministry.

In April 2019, Suhakam concluded in their public inquiry that the Special Branch was behind the enforced disappearances of Pastor Koh and Amri.

In July 2019, the government appointed a special task force to act upon Suhakam’s findings, but there have been no developments since then. Despite Liew meeting the ex-prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and current prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Pastor Koh’s whereabouts and condition remain unknown and no one has been held accountable.

Home Group Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We pray for Pastor Raymond Koh, Amri Che Mat, Pastor Joshua Hilmy, Ruth Sitepu, and their families. We pray that you will keep them from harm’s way and let them know how you are holding them in the palm of your hand. Watch over them and keep them safe. Bring comfort to Susanna Liew, Norhayati Mohd Ariffin, and the other members of their families and congregations and organisations who care so much about them and have great worry about their conditions.

We pray for an end to the falsehoods which have been told in an attempt to avoid the truth. Evil is perpetrated even further with falsehood. The failure to pursue evil is evil. We pray that the police and other governmental authorities of Malaysia will finally take action to find these missing heroes and bring them back to the families and friends.

We pray for the churches who have been deprived of their pastors. We pray for Hope Community that the ministry will continue to bring God’s word of hope and peace and love to the poor, single mothers and drug addicts it cares for. Malaysia needs much more of this hope and peace and love that come only from you rather than violence and oppression.  We pray for all pastors in Malaysia and their congregations. We pray that you will keep them safe and protect them. We pray that the government of Malaysia will protect all its citizens, including Christians. Heavenly Father, you know the fate of these brave men and women who have suffered for the Good News you bring to all humankind. We give thanks for all they have done for us.  May you bless them and their families.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.