(BBC) Malaysia is considering its multi-cultural credentials after a crowd of Muslims on Sunday broke up a meeting called to defend the rights of religious minorities.
The country's leaders condemned the disturbances, but the BBC's Jonathan Kent in Kuala Lumpur says non-Muslims feel increasingly beleaguered.
"I'm becoming an alien in Malaysia, in my own country," says Dr Jacob George.
The president of the Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam in Selangor State has been helping to organise efforts to stop the local authorities in the ethnic Malay-Muslim dominated city of Shah Alam from demolishing a 107-year-old Hindu temple.
Earlier in April another 19th-Century temple was demolished a few kilometres away in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
The authorities said in both cases the temples' founders did not have permission to build them. But the demolitions are surprising because Malaysia has forged for itself a reputation as a successful multicultural society.
In living memory it has had only two serious outbreaks of inter-communal violence; in 1946 and 1969. But lately, non-Muslims in Malaysia have expressed fears that the delicate balance between themselves and the majority may be shifting. [...]
Last year the compound of a cult known as the Sky Kingdom was levelled by the authorities, weeks after an attack by a Muslim mob. Many of the cultists are now on trial.
And just before Christmas a newly completed church of an indigenous community near Skudai in Johor state was reduced to rubble, closely monitored by Islamic department officials and the police.
In all cases the Muslim-dominated local authorities say the buildings were illegal. Many such buildings are deemed as such because they pre-date land records. Others are put up illegally because some local authorities seem reluctant to grant permission for temples and churches, but worshippers build them regardless.
In contrast, the issue of illegally built mosques rarely arises because many local governments are generous with both land and money for their construction. [...]
Read the whole story here.
The country's leaders condemned the disturbances, but the BBC's Jonathan Kent in Kuala Lumpur says non-Muslims feel increasingly beleaguered.
"I'm becoming an alien in Malaysia, in my own country," says Dr Jacob George.
The president of the Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam in Selangor State has been helping to organise efforts to stop the local authorities in the ethnic Malay-Muslim dominated city of Shah Alam from demolishing a 107-year-old Hindu temple.
Earlier in April another 19th-Century temple was demolished a few kilometres away in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
The authorities said in both cases the temples' founders did not have permission to build them. But the demolitions are surprising because Malaysia has forged for itself a reputation as a successful multicultural society.
In living memory it has had only two serious outbreaks of inter-communal violence; in 1946 and 1969. But lately, non-Muslims in Malaysia have expressed fears that the delicate balance between themselves and the majority may be shifting. [...]
Last year the compound of a cult known as the Sky Kingdom was levelled by the authorities, weeks after an attack by a Muslim mob. Many of the cultists are now on trial.
And just before Christmas a newly completed church of an indigenous community near Skudai in Johor state was reduced to rubble, closely monitored by Islamic department officials and the police.
In all cases the Muslim-dominated local authorities say the buildings were illegal. Many such buildings are deemed as such because they pre-date land records. Others are put up illegally because some local authorities seem reluctant to grant permission for temples and churches, but worshippers build them regardless.
In contrast, the issue of illegally built mosques rarely arises because many local governments are generous with both land and money for their construction. [...]
Read the whole story here.
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