IT is ridiculous, to say the least, for the Education Ministry to issue a stern warning to a missionary school in Penang for reciting the Christian “doa selamat” before the start of a function at the school premises in response to a police report lodged by a political activist.

Politicians are out for publicity and will create smoke even where there is no fire. So one should not jump into action immediately as if a big crime has been committed and the criminal is escaping. The first thing to think about is what the crime or cause is.

This is a Christian missionary school and it is their age-old practice to start lessons for the day, or functions, with a “doa selamat” just like the Muslims do. This practice is also common in other faiths. So what is the agenda of the political activist in this case, and the police and the Education Ministry, in jumping into action and issuing a stern warning to the school?

Did the person who led the “doa selamat” request the Muslims present to join in the “doa selamat”? If not, how did reciting the “doa selamat” by the Christians turn into an attempt to proselytise the Muslims present?

Mission schools have existed for a long time, and they provided excellent education to the children who attended them. Pre-war and post-war and up to the 1970’s, hundreds of thousands of Malay children attended these schools.

They went through the regime of daily, morning prayers, i.e. the “Lord’s prayer” and “Hail Mary”. They would stand respectfully with their non-Muslim colleagues for the prayers. Not one parent complained. Not one politician complained. Not one child was swayed by the prayers, day after day, month after month, year after year, to discard Islam and convert to Christianity.

So why all the hullabaloo about Christians saying their “doa selamat” in their premises today?

The solution for Muslims who have been brainwashed into believing that it is “haram” for them to even hear Christian “doa selamat” in missionary schools is simple – avoid those schools like avoiding the plague.

There are so many Sekolah Kebangsaan. Why are they not sending their children there? Why pick missionary schools in the first place? Alternatively, join the more than 100,000 Malay children in the Chinese schools.

By the way, can the police, the Education Minister Maszlee Malik, or the religious affairs minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa openly state where in the Quran is it forbidden for non-Muslims to say their prayers within earshot of the Muslims?

To my knowledge, the Prophet never laid down such a ruling. If the Prophet did say that it is haram for the prayers of non-Muslims to fall on the ears of the Muslims, please show where it is so stated. Otherwise stop all the bigotry and face-giving to bigots by jumping into action at the drop of such reports. Entertaining such reports and even acting on them gives the impression that it is a joint, concerted agenda to harass non-Muslims through frivolous, artificial  “sensitivities” for political reasons. – September 30, 2019.

* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insight.