THE Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) has urged the authorities to take action against Gerakan Pembela Ummah and Ikatan Muslim Malaysia for allegedly inciting hatred hatred against Christians, The Malay Mail reported.

CCM general secretary Reverend Hermen Shastri hit out at the Malay-Muslim coalition for alleging that the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) is placing Christians in key positions in Putrajaya. 

“Their statements are unfounded and meant to (incite) fearmongering by rallying Muslims to name Christians as enemies. 

“This goes to show that they are bankrupt of ideas and, therefore, have to resort to such tactics to divide our nation and stoke fears of inter-religious tensions,” Shastri was quoted by The Malay Mail as saying.

He was responding to Gerakan Pembela Ummah chairman and Isma president Aminuddin Yahaya’s speech at the National Ummah Unity Convention on Sunday. 

Aminuddin had allegedly said that CFM’s agenda was to place as many Christians as it could in high positions in the government as part of an evangelical drive.

He also alleged that Christians had become more brazen in evangelism and posed a major threat to the majority Malay-Muslim community.

Shastri said Aminuddin’s remarks stoked hatred and that action must be taken against those who seeking to derail good interfaith relations in the country.

On Saturday, Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had said that police had reported an uptick in the use of race, religion and royalty as issues to stir up discontent.

He had said the police were keeping Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and himself informed of the situation. 

“There is data collected by the police, which they have briefed me and the prime minister (on). The data shows that there are tendencies with malicious intent, based on the ‘3Rs’,” Muhyiddin said, referring to race, religion and royalty.

“There are incidents erupting in parts of the country. When put together, the total is almost twice the number of such incidents in the previous year,” he had said. 

He had said police were monitoring the situation and that there were ongoing 3R investigations.

Among them involve the alleged insults made by controversial preacher Zakir Naik against Malaysian Hindus and Chinese, calls to reject the teaching of khat calligraphy to Year 4 vernacular school pupils and the hanging of the Jalur Gemilang upside down. – August 27, 2019.