Did Najib respect Christians during his visit to Church?

‘Paranoid’ aides told church to remove crosses for Najib visit.

Catholic church officials were told to remove crucifixes and to avoid hymns being sung when Prime Minister Najib Razak attended the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur’s Christmas tea party last Saturday.

Comments from Malaysians

whats the pattern here? Allah issue? Cow head? remove the crosses? the fatwas against interfaith. Najib will play good cop but the system is corrupt.

It doesnt make you a better Muslim to do that, or become Christian by having crucifixes/hymns around you. This is not the way of Islam, Prophet Muhammad and other Caliphs. This what I call 'the Islam version of stupid Muslim'. They dont understand the real Islam, but acting like a pious man on the street. I feel ashamed with the event.

Many of us attend Muslim friends functions. We sit quietly and respectfully while the Doa Selamat is being recited. We partake the food served without second thought even as we know that the meat was religiouly slaughtered by Muslim rites. Wiil the day comes when friends of other religions and beliefs respectfully take a moment leave when the Doa is being read, and will we decline meat not prepared according to our belief? Will our Muslim host not shake our hands because we maybe wearing a ring with symbols that may be unIslamic? I do not sincerely know. If it does it will not be that we of other religions declining an invitation but because the Islam forbid our Muslim friends from inviting us. Will it happen? Only in this country it would.

If the country's prime minister can't be expected to show the smallest sign of openness to other religions, then there's little chance of getting any from the ordinary folks.

Why bother to invite him in the first instance? Sometimes the churches have themselves to blame for the troubles with those in authority. Something like this only gives the bigots an opportunity to thumb you down, again.

Frankly,this paranoia only exists among the narrower-minded Malay muslims!They can save themselves and others a lot of grief by not attending these non-muslim functions in future.Likewise,the church in this case should not bend backwards to accomodate because once you do so,there will be no end to future demands.

Shame on the Archbishop for inviting such a dubious character just for the sake of political expediency. To acknowledge Najib Razak's legitimacy as prime minister is to endorse corruption, hypocrisy, deceit and murder.

How could hypocrisy be more clearly exemplified that this? How could religious intolerance be more blatant than this - asking a house of religion not to displace their religious images/items because a non believer comes a visiting? All the claims of religious freedom, rights of non-muslim is just so much bunkum with such an act. What more can be said?

why bother to come? this kind of actions will only spoil the celebrations. I believe the Christmas tea party can still be held even without the present of the PM, with much more fun and meaningful. Maybe Pakiam, and other religion leaders can stop inviting dignitaries to similar functions in the future.

This is not what exactly what the 1Malaysia concept is all about.Would this particular aid have issued the ultimatum at the Gurdwara if the PM visited there.Would the aide have issued the same to the Holy sahibs there...fikir-fikirkan lah.Perhaps that old aide should resign as therey were from the previous administration....good time to go and write for a magazine or tabloid,your shelf life is over.

Let's be fair. If Christian hymns or carols or even the crucifix are to be removed when a Muslim dignitary attends a Christmas tea party, then there shouldn't be a prayer by a Muslim in a Muslim ceremony attended by non-Muslims. In the National Service camps, all the trainees are instructed to lift up their hands in prayer (an Islamic prayer) during the opening and closing ceremony. What if the students objected to this? And why should non-Muslim students be made to participate in an Islamic prayer?

I don't get this about Islam existing above all other religions. Let's also look from the point of view of the other faiths. Hindus would hold their religion above any other religion; Christians would hold their fairh above any other faiths. But when this matter is talked about, the non-Muslims are deemed as questioning the legitimacy of Islam. How foolish? One's personal faith is always supreme than any other. But that doesn't mean you have to impose it on others to hold the same view.

Such attendance is "eye-washing" only; remember, GE is around the corner. Looks like PM attended the function on political agenda rather than promoting religious harmony. As Shakespeare had said, we are all actors on the stage. Sounds very very hypocritical. Not a bit of genuine intention at all. How can one be a PM of a multi-racial/ethnic/religious Malaysia ???

What is the big deals? You mean government can't get down to the ground to mix with Rakyat even thought there are Christian during a Christmas celebration. Then the Muslim perspective of the present government need a lot of learning to do.

Now, BN just make a mockery of themselves in the eye of Rakyat. Celebration dosen't mean forgoing your religious belief, it mean that you are able to respect your other brothers of mankind. It pure humanity thing to do.

Perfect example why religion states don't work and mixing religion and politics is a bad idea. You can't control the majority who will not upheld the highest ideal of religion and most will also abuse/fail it to a certain extent. Put a few in power and that is all it takes to wreck things..

This is a sad day when they show no respect for other religions. When we visit somone's house for a celebration , we don't tell them to remove religious symbols or to stop singing songs just because they do not share our religious beliefs. This goes against what Malaysia stands for - a land of diversity , where differences are to be celebrated.