13 May in the making to save unpopular UMNO ... church attacks

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani,
The Malaysian Insider
Datuk Zaid Ibrahim today condemned Umno and urged the government to take full responsibility for the church attacks.

“It has to take full responsibility for the worsening of relations between people of different faiths in this country in its handling of the use of the word Allah.

"The irresponsible conduct of fanning the emotions by Umno leaders has brought about this dangerous situation. What we see today confirms that this country is being governed not by engagement consultation, sophistication or persuasion but by brute and mob force,” he said in a press statement.

Early this morning, a Protestant church was torched while homemade explosives were thrown at a Catholic church next to the Assunta Hospital.

“The Umno-led government has the penchant to use force or flexing of authority in dealing with delicate issues. Take the case of the ban imposed on the Herald. They could easily have engaged in consultation with the church in Sabah and Sarawak. They should try to understand why the need to use the word Allah without any preconceived notions or prejudice. After all, they have been using the word Allah for many years before BN government acted to ban the Herald.

"They could easily have also engaged in discussions with the various Muslim groups about their legitimate concerns on whether the church are surreptitiously converting Muslims and explore ways to address these concerns in spirit of dialogue and peaceful deliberations,” he said.
He explained that there are already laws against converting Muslims but Umno instead chose to politicise the sensitive issue.

“There is already a law against converting Muslims anyway. They could have done a lot more. But because of their lack of maturity and sophistication banning is the obvious choice.

“They want instant popularity so fanning the emotions of Muslims becomes legitimate... and when the court ruled otherwise they then fan the Muslims to oppose the ruling. The people of this country will not escape the scourge of Umno-led rule until they decide once and for all to dislodge this government in the next available opportunity.”