KUALA LUMPUR, 22 December 2003 — Malaysia blasted the US government yesterday over a report accusing it of restricting religious freedom, with a deputy minister describing it as “irresponsible and untruthful.”
Meanwhile, China rejected US criticism of its religious rights record as unfair yesterday, saying the United States should put its own house in order and stop meddling in the practices of other nations.
“It is shocking for the US State Department to issue such a misleading, irresponsible and untruthful report,” Malaysia’s Deputy Information Minister Khalid Yunus said.
“The whole world knows the religious freedom that exists in Malaysia, that we have close relationships and understanding among the people as far as freedom of religion is concerned. They can come here and see for themselves how tolerant we are,” he said.
Khalid urged the US government to ensure that future reports were factually correct in order not to create “unnecessary animosity” in bilateral relations.
The annual International Religious Freedom Report issued by the US State Department last week listed Malaysia alongside Turkey, Russia, Indonesia, Brunei, Belarus, Eritrea, Moldova and Israel as among nine countries with laws or policies that favored certain religions and placed others at a disadvantage. The report also sharply criticized Saudi Arabia, Egypt, North Korea and Iran.
The report rebuked China, a growing US partner in trying to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, saying it tried to restrict religious practice to state-sanctioned groups while others suffered varying degrees of “interference and harassment”.
“The US censure on China’s religious policy and religious freedom went against reality and was extremely unfair and absolutely unreasonable,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
“We express our strong displeasure and firm opposition to it,” Liu said in a statement.
Liu said China only banned illegal organizations, such as the Falun Gong spiritual sect, from “conducting illegal and criminal activities” in the guise of religion.
“We urge the US side to pay more attention to the problems of its domestic religious freedom and not to always find fault with other nations,” Liu said. He urged Washington to stop “using the religious issue to interfere with China’s internal affairs and do more to help boost understanding and cooperation between the two countries”.
China officially endorses religious freedom but only recognizes the authority of state-approved churches, which host around five million Catholic worshipers.
Racial issues are sensitive in Malaysia, where there is a large ethnic Chinese and Hindu community alongside the majority Muslims who make up some 60 percent of Malaysia’s 25 million population.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who leads a coalition of multi-racial parties, has also rejected the US report, saying the fact that all Malaysians celebrated together the various festivities of the major religions was a mark of tolerance.
“Ask the Christians, Buddhists and Hindus who have their churches and temples here. Don’t ask me. If I talk, they will not believe. Ask others and they will tell you we practice religious freedom,” he said over the weekend. “What they are saying is all not true.”
