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| Southeast Asia |
| Malaysian PM meets church leaders to calm tensions |
| 2011-05-13 |
| [Straits Times] MALAYSIAN premier Najib Razak on Thursday met with church leaders in a bid to ease religious tensions stirred by a report that minority Christians wanted to replace Islam as the official religion. Church leaders have angrily denounced the report which ran in the government-linked newspaper Utusan Malaysia on Saturday, describing it as 'baseless and highly irresponsible'. Council of Churches of Malaysia president, Bishop Thomas Tsen, said the meeting with Najib helped defuse tensions. 'We had a very good session and good exchange,' Bishop Tsen told AFP. 'It was a very good start.' Utusan Malaysia's front-page story headlined 'Christianity, official religion?' reported allegations by bloggers that church leaders had prayed during a meeting attended by opposition leaders for a Christian prime minister and for Christianity to become the official religion. Mr Najib also said he was pleased with the meeting and that church leaders had reassured him they will work towards harmony and respect the position of Islam. 'I am glad to inform that Christian leaders have given two very important and meaningful undertakings,' he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency. |
| Posted by:Fred |