MCCBCHST is concerned that no religious icon held dear to its respective religious adherents should be presented in any disrespectful way.
It is regrettable that yet another case of such disrespectful presentation has occurred with a depiction of Jesus Christ in a newspaper recently.
MCCBCHST was surprised as to how such a grave mistake could have been committed. Newspapers should avoid publishing this kind of pictures as it causes hurt to people of that religion.
MCCBCHST notes that Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, while expressing the hurt that Christians feel about such defilement of Christ, has accepted the public apology of the newspaper involved in this latest case and considers the matter closed in his public statement. The Council of Churches Malaysia through its General Secretary has also expressed a similar view.
When I spoke to the Chief Editor of the newspaper involved, I too felt that the apology he had extended was sincere and should be accepted.
This magnanimous gesture on the part of Christian leaders in the interest of press freedom must however be reciprocated by the news media who must now ensure that such occurrences should not take place again.
The wider concern of MCCBCHST is that after fifty years of independence, Malaysians have still not sufficiently understood and appreciated one another’s religious sentiments.
This difficiency should be rectified and all public and media officials should be knowledgeable about the sentiments of all the major religions.
Datuk A. Vaithilingam,
MCCBCHST President
23 August 2007
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