馬來西亞

“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.

家庭小組禱告

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,

阿門。

 

 

 

“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.

家庭小組禱告

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.

奉耶穌的名禱告。阿門。

“禍哉，那些用虛假之繩牽引罪惡的人，那些用車繩牽引罪惡的人”(Isaiah 5:18 ESV)

馬來西亞牧師 Raymond Koh 光天化日下失踪三年後，其家人對政府和高級官員提起了民事訴訟。他的妻子蘇珊娜·劉 (Susanna Liew) 表示，他們別無選擇，只能訴諸法庭尋求正義，以解決對丈夫失踪的調查。 2017 年 2 月，在 Koh 牧師被綁架三週年之際，兩名前國家警察局長和其他 11 名被告在吉隆坡高等法院出庭受審。

這起訴訟是在2019 年11 月由諾哈雅蒂·穆罕默德·阿里芬(Norhayati Mohd Ariffin) 提起類似訴訟的四個月後提出的。 Mat) 的妻子，安里·切馬特自2016 年12 月失踪。第二天早上，人們發現他的汽車被遺棄，擋風玻璃被砸碎。馬來西亞人權委員會 (Suhakam) 剛開始對另一位牧師 Joshua Hilmy 和他的妻子 Ruth Sitepu 的失蹤事件進行調查。

蘇珊娜·劉在聲明中表示，如果警方及其情報機構馬來西亞特別調查局能夠在一周內破獲朝鮮領導人金正恩同父異母兄長金正男被謀殺的案件，那麼他們應該能夠解決她丈夫失踪的案件。截至目前，劉還沒有收到任何贖金要求。

「我們的希望正在慢慢消失，但因為對上帝的信仰，我們仍然堅持下去。我相信雷蒙德仍然活著並被關押在某個地方，我們希望他們盡快被釋放。一個家庭如果再這樣下去，恐怕也維持不下去了。

Koh 牧師在吉隆坡創立了希望社區 (Harapan Komuniti)，這是一個幫助窮人、單親媽媽和吸毒者等的慈善機構。監視器拍到了一群全副武裝的男子在吉隆坡郊區的一條公共道路上綁架他的畫面。在此之前，牧師收到了郵寄的一盒子彈，警告他停止工作。儘管如此，他仍然堅持從事他的職務。

2019 年 4 月，人權委員會在公開調查中得出結論，特別部門是 Koh 牧師和 Amri 強迫失蹤的幕後黑手。

2019 年 7 月，政府任命了一個特別工作小組根據人權委員會的調查結果採取行動，但此後沒有任何進展。儘管劉先生會見了前首相馬哈迪和現任首相丹斯里慕尤丁，但許牧師的下落和狀況仍然不明，而且無人被追究責任。

家庭小組禱告

天父，

我們為 Raymond Koh 牧師、Amri Che Mat、Joshua Hilmy 牧師、Ruth Sitepu 及其家人祈禱。我們祈禱您能保護他們免受傷害，並讓他們知道您是如何將他們捧在手心的。照顧他們並確保他們的安全。為 Susanna Liew、Norhayati Mohd Ariffin 以及他們的家人、會眾和組織的其他成員帶來安慰，他們非常關心他們並非常擔心他們的狀況。

我們祈禱，那些為了逃避真相而說的謊言能夠終止。謊言使邪惡更加猖獗。不追求邪惡就是邪惡。我們祈禱馬來西亞警方和其他政府部門最終能夠採取行動，找到這些失蹤的英雄，並將他們帶回他們的家人和朋友身邊。

我們為那些失去牧師的教會禱告。我們為希望社區祈禱，願該機構繼續為其關心的窮人、單身母親和吸毒者帶來上帝的希望、和平與愛的話語。馬來西亞需要更多這種只有你們才能給予的希望、和平與愛，而不是暴力與壓迫。 我們為馬來西亞所有牧師和他們的會眾祈禱。我們祈禱您保佑他們平安並保護他們。我們祈禱馬來西亞政府保護所有公民，包括基督徒。天父，您知道這些勇敢的男男女女的命運，他們為了向全人類傳福音而遭受苦難。我們感謝他們為我們所做的一切。 願您保佑他們和他們的家人。

以耶穌的名。阿門。