Guidelines on places of worship in the works
Najib: "UMNO will spend a lot more resources on nonsense like this ... Hope you like it!"
By Patrick Lee
“The Ministry of Housing and Local Government is considering a set of guidelines with regards to the construction of places of worship in housing areas.
"Jakim will be roped into the committee for its input to implement these guidelines,” said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Senator Mashitah Ibrahim in Dewan Rakyat today.
“Once they are finalised, we will inform everyone concerned,” she said. However, Mashitah did not elaborate on the areas these guidelines would cover.
She was replying to query raised by Md Sirat Abu (BN-Bukit Katil), who asked if the government had taken action in promoting understanding of religion among Malaysians.
Most people, said Sirat, had no problems respecting other religions but certain issues needed to addressed, especially when it came to building places of worship in housing areas.
In July last year, about 50 demonstrators from Shah Alam protested against the relocation of the Sri Mahamariamman Hindu temple from Section 19 to a housing area in Section 23.
The protesters had paraded a severed cow head from the Shah Alam state mosque to the Selangor State Secretariat building, where they proceeded to stamp on it.
Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim recently said that new housing developments in the state needed to accommodate places of worship when development plans were submitted.
“The government, through agencies like Jakim, promotes camaraderie programmes with the involvement of non-Muslims to promote tolerence and understading,” said Mashitah.
She added Jakim was also involved in a committee set up by the National Unity and Integration Department (NUID) to respect worshippers of various faiths.
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