UTM slides shows trend to to put down religions other than Islam, says MGC

| Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 16 June 2016 | Asia Samachar |

The Malaysian Gurdwaras Council (MGC) is ‘disturbed’ at what it deemed as the ‘discerning trend in the country to put down religions other than Islam’.

“This trend can be seen developing in the numerous cases in the last 20 years where Non-Muslim religions have been put-down,” said MGC President Jagir Singh in a statement released yesterday (15 June 2016).

“The MGC is of the view that No religion which follows true teachings of its own religion will put down another religion.”

The statement was released in connection with the erroneous and ridiculously worded slides used at University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), a Malaysian public university, to teach students about the Hindu and Sikh faiths.

The exposure of the slides via the social media led to a storm of protest and expression of disgust of the a wide segment of the Malayisan community, with the highest ranking UTM official expressing ‘utmost regret and deep remorse for the lack of sensitivity’ on the part of its lecturers.

MGC said the content of the slides were a deliberate act and not a mistake as it was done consciously.

“It showed the lecturers utter disrespect for other faiths and are guilty of bigotry as their assertions are foolish and devoid of facts and truth,” said Jagir.

MGC also said the slides also ‘appear to have committed offence of sedition and offences against the Penal Code especially Section 298 which relates to injuring the feelings of followers of other religion.

MGC also said it was disturbed that the allegations against the Sikh faith contained in the lecture slides were similar to that being made by the Islamic preacher Zakir Naik who was in Malaysia recently.

“Those who have gone through his speeches found on the internet can vouch for this,” he said.

In response, MGC, the umbrella body for Sikh gurdwaras in Malaysia, has asked for ‘serious action’ be taken against those responsible for ‘this act of blasphemy and belittling of other faiths’ to send signal to others like-minded persons not to repeat such mistakes.

In a separate incident, a former teacher trainer had made a police report in Penang on 14 June to call upon the police to investigate and arrest those behind the slides concerned.

Former Sultan Abdul Halim Teachers’ Training College lecturer Ravinder Singh said the facts presented in the slides were not only offensive, but also grossly inaccurate.

In the statement, MGC had also outlined why it felt the allegations against the Sikh faith were false. See full statement here.

[ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs in Southeast Asia and surrounding countries. We have a Facebook page, do give it a LIKE. Follow us on Twitter. Visit our website: www.asiasamachar.com]

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