29 March, 2011

Any comment please? Ustaz? Ulama' ? Tok Imam? Tok Guru?

Berita di bawah telah dipetik dari The Star 28/3/2011 yang bertajuk "Visits to boost religious ties".

Persoalannya apa kah kita telah melakukan perkara yang betul? Semoga usaha ini menyimpang dari unsur-unsur pluralism.

Any comment please?

KUALA LUMPUR: Visits to religious houses are being organised to foster better understanding and relations among the various religious groups.

The programme kicked off yesterday with a call on Masjid Negara by a group of 30 people representating various religious organisations.

They included representatives from the Self Advocacy Society of Persons with Learning Disabilities of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Citizens' Initiative for Religious Harmony (Cireh), Sikh, Catholics and Hindus, who were invited by the Muslim Youth Movement (Abim) for a dialogue.

The programme will be followed up with a visit to a Buddhist temple in Subang Jaya.

Inter Spiritual and Fellowship (Insaf) coordinator Rev Thomas George said the programme was an initiative by ordinary Malaysians from various religious groups to allow them to understand and “remove the fear about other religions”.

“We must allow different religions to interact to foster respect through proper dialogue,” he said after a tour of Masjid Negara followed by a discussion.

George said religion had become a sensitive matter in Malaysia due to a lack of discussion among the groups.

Masjid Negara imam Azhar Tuarno, who addressed the group, called for such sessions to be held regularly.

Cireh committee member Norman Ghani said the groups which attended agreed to conduct special classes to discuss their respective holy scriptures.

He said the classes would start in May with English to be the language used.

“The first class will be about the Quran and we invite all non-Muslims to interact and ask questions,” he said.

Norman said classes would be held once fortnightly and would be followed by discussions on other holy texts.