Eyebrows were raised recently when Malaysia’s Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail decided not to take action against the Al-Islam magazine and 2 of its Muslim journalists despite police reports lodged against them for desecrating a Roman Catholic ritual last year. But now, Al-Islam and its 2 Muslim journalists involved have apologized to Christians, and in particular, Roman Catholics for their action.
Why did the Attorney-General decide to drop the case against Al-Islam and the 2 Muslim journalists? When P Gunasegaram, Managing Editor of The Star newspaper wrote a recent article questioning whether the sentence of both caning and detention meted out to 3 Muslim women are proportionate to the offence, ie illicit sex, and argued against punitive sentence for private behaviour, the Home Ministry issued a show cause letter to The Star after several police reports were made against both P Gunasegaram and The Star. So how come there is no show cause letter sent to Al-Islam?
Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said: ”The actions of the two reporters may have hurt the feelings of the people but I was satisfied that they did not intend to offend anyone. It was an act of sheer ignorance. Therefore in view of the circumstances at that particular time and in the interest of justice, peace and harmony, I decided not to press any charges against them.”
However, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional said the action of the two Al-Islam journalists were offensive and contrary to the Malaysian culture of peace, harmony and tolerance.
So what exactly did Al-Islam magazine and its 2 Muslim journalists do that caused much distress to the Roman Catholic Church? In May last year, Al-Islam sent 2 of its Muslim journalists on a spying mission, pretending to be Christians, to St. Anthony’s Church in Jalan Robertson, located near Puduraya in Kuala Lumpur.
It seems that Al-Islam had heard rumors that this church was engaging Muslims and illegally converting Muslims to the Roman Catholic faith. The spies published a report entitled “Tinjauan Al-Islam Dalam Gereja: Mencari Kesahihan Remaja Melayu Murtad” in which they said that they did not see any sign of such illegal activities taking place in the church. However, in order to blend in with the crowd of worshippers and not to attract attention, the 2 Muslim journalists participated in the Mass. They admitted to actually spitting the Communion wafers out, and publishing a photograph of a partially bitten Communion wafer. Roman Catholics consider what the 2 spies did as desecretion.
Elaborating further on why he decided to drop the case, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said: “No disturbance was caused in the church. In fact, no one in the church was aware that they were Malays.” He added that the 2 journalists did not “know the significance of the white bread” given to them and had committed “an act of ignorance, not malice.”
The decision by the Attorney-General to drop the case brought a swift response from the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam. Expressing personal sadness and the Roman Catholic Church’s regret at the decision of the Attorney-General, Tan sri Murphy Pakiam said: “The journalists have displayed utmost disrespect for the Catholic community when they admit receiving and spitting out the Holy Communion.”
Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam went on to say: “Forgiveness is in our blood. Everyday, we pray for God to forgive us, and for forgiveness for those who have sinned against us.” Then he added that the Roman Catholic church would not pursue further legal action if Al-Islam and the 2 Muslim journalists were to apologize publicly for their misdeeds.
Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said: ”The Attorney-General would not be able to convince the community hurt by the act of desecration with such a lame excuse – what more, without any apology from the perpetrators to show remorse for the religious desecration which must be regarded as an act of heinous insensitivity completely unacceptable in Najib’s 1Malaysia.”
Lim Kit Siang added: “Malaysians are charitable people and are prepared to forget and even forgive wrongs and offences committed – but there must be proper apology and contrition for a heinous insensitivity like the religious desecration perpetrated by Al-Islam reporters in our plural society.”
Then suddenly, Al-Islam issued a public apology on the website of its publisher, Utusan Karya. It said in a statement: “The Al-Islam magazine apologizes in connection with the publication of the article” and it went on to say that Al-Islam “never meant to insult the Christian faith, let alone to disturb or trespass into its house of worship.” It acknowleged that its report had “unintentionally hurt the feelings of Christians especially Catholics.” Referring to its 2 Muslim journalists, the statement added that they were also sorry and had been unaware that their actions would offend Christians.
Responding to the public apology, Mabel Sabastian, president of Malaysia’s Catholic Lawyers’ Society said her group accepts the apology and plans to take no further action. She said that the apology “gives us some closure.”
Think about it. Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said that the 2 Muslim journalists from Al-Islam acted out of sheer ignorance and had no intention to cause harm, and thus he decided against prosecuting them. Does this make sense? Can one plead ignorance and good intention when caught for committing an offense and get away with it? What justice is the Attorney-General talking about?
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Alislam is a very bad site and is not what Allah would be pleased to see. It has disrepected other religions on numerous occasions and has a ton of incorrect information. The prophet would be sadded at the people behind it. They shall see they were wrong on the day of judgement for their rude actions. They know what they have done.