Yesterday, I attended the ‘Seminar Mendaulatkan Islam Agama Negara’ organised by Pertubuhan Muafakat Sejahtera Masyarakat Malaysia (MUAFAKAT) and co-organised by Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM).
There were more than one thousand participants who attended the seminar which was held at the Dewan Muktamar, Pusat Islam, Kuala Lumpur.
It is a very important event because the speakers taught us a lot of important facts about Islam as the religion of Malaysia as written in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.
The President of Dewan Negara, H. E. Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang officiated the seminar.
The keynote speech was delivered by YABhg. Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, who is the former Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia.
I think that the most important fact that was explained during the seminar was about the Article 3 (1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, which says that, “Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.”
A lot of people do not understand the Article 3 (1) and say that, “Islam is the official religion of Malaysia.”
(Please read, ‘Is Malaysia A Secular State?’)
Islam is not only the official religion but Islam is the religion of Malaysia and there is a big different between the religion of Malaysia and the official religion Malaysia.
If Islam is only the official religion, Malaysia could have has other unofficial religions; which means that this country believes in Pluralism of Religion.
This is wrong because Malaysia has only one religion which is Islam, while other religions can be practiced peacefully in this country.
So leaders, politicians and all of the Malaysian citizens must understand and respect this fact; for as Malaysians we must protect the Federal Constitution.
I hope that the opposition will stop twisting the Article 3 (1) and stop making demands against the Federal Constitution such as IFC.
(Please read, Ngeh Tweeted, “Malays Has Freedom To Choose Religion”)
I am very proud to be one of the secretariat members of the event and having the chance to talk to YABhg. Tun Ahmad Fairuz and his wife, Uncle YB Dato’ Zulkifli Noordin, Uncle Dr. Sidek Baba, Uncle Azril Mohd. Amin, Dato’ Rahmah Abdul Hamid (who is Khairy Jamaluddin’s mother), Uncle Dato’ Mustapha Ma from MACMA and a lot of other wonderful people who love our country and fight to protect Islam and the Malaysian Contitution.
I also met a lot of wonderful people from the press, for example Uncle Ansari from Astro Awani and lots of uncles and aunties from AntaraPos, Utusan and other medias.
Ahmad Ali Karim's Weblog 
Freedom of religion should be protected by all as long as it respects everyone else religion and gives them the same rights as they have. This would deny religions that practice any kind of harm or pressure to anyone in or out of their religion. I do not know much about Islam but from what I have read they seem to follow these basic rights much like Christians. We in Canada also try to keep politics and religions separate but some matters are hard to keep it separate as I am sure is the same in most countries, government is the law to perfect everyone’s rights that do not harm others and represents us to the world. In Canada we have a very large country that has many easy to get resources with abundance to sell around the world, many countries do not have the resources and with it comes unrest and pressures to deal with. I would think this threatens the people and they would like all the people to be of the same religion and feel threatened by those that are encroaching on their ideals. Some western religions do the same, they keep an eye on others and some churches count the numbers going to the church down the road and are almost envious if they are growing faster than their church, this can get out of control and become a serious problem if the nations laws are not obeyed or enforced. I have rambled on enough and this is my opinion be it right or not or some times, is to be seen.
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Dear richard123456columbia,
Article 3(1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia stated that, Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.
I think that everybody has to respect the laws of their country and they have no rights to interfere with the laws of another country. The same with religion, we have no rights to interfere the matters of other religions. Yes, Islam is very fair and a peaceful religion. Muslims must respect and be fair to others including the non-Muslims. But other people must respect the Muslims too and do not interfere in matters regarding Islam.
It will be nice if people learn to respect other people. But I am sad that some people use power to force others to do things that they want.
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I agree all should be free to practice thier religion if it does not harm others.
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Dear richard123456columbia,
Yes, everybody must learn to respect others around them even if they are different from us.
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