Interfaith efforts wrecked by misunderstanding, says Pak Lah
By Melissa Chi
August 8, 2013
PETALING JAYA, Aug 8 — Plans for an Interfaith Commission of Malaysia (ICM) were derailed by resistance from those who conflated it with support for pluralism, former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says in his upcoming book.
In 2005, civil society, professional and political groups had banded together to advocate the ICM as conciliatory and advisory body among the country’s various creeds.
But detractors quickly attacked it as an attempt to usurp Islam as the religion of the federation, claiming it that it would lead to a proliferation of Muslim apostasy.
“People do not really understand what interfaith dialogue is, especially the muftis,” Abdullah, popularly called Pak Lah, wrote in his book “Awakenings: The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia”.
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/interfaith-efforts-wrecked-by-misunderstanding-says-pak-lah
Interfaith, pluralism and apostasy make a strange prism with which to view religious diversity.