KUCHING, June 20 — A Brunei citizen has urged for churches along the Miri-Brunei road to be demolished for allegedly proselytising to Muslims, angering Sarawakians with his call.
In the /r/brunei sub-forum on the Reddit website, the person using the screen name “patrioticbrunei” claimed citizens of his country were upset with Sarawak churches displaying “provocative” words on their front walls facing the road.
“Nowadays I can see many big churches sprung up in Miri, blatantly displaying words praising Jesus,” he wrote in his post last week.
“I believe this is an attempt to proselytise Bruneians. The churches know many Bruneians visit Miri and so they deliberately construct the building near the roadside and put up provocative words such as ‘Jesus is Lord’, ‘Jesus can save you’, ‘Glory to Jesus’ and more.”
He said he planned to write to the Miri City Council to demand the demolition of such churches, and asked his government to send a delegation to the Sarawak city for the same purpose, despite acknowledging that Miri was predominantly Christian.
The post on the content-sharing site drew outrage from other presumably Malaysian Internet users, some of whom directed their criticism at Brunei for fostering a sense of supremacy among Muslims.
One user with the screen name “Springsmoker” said: “Yes, specifically in Brunei because your government is so bias over your religion and has total disregard to the rest, you may feel your entitlement. But pls pls keep this within Brunei only and do not ever think you have the right to poke into your neighbours.”
Another writing under the name “Yiksing” said only people with weak faith would be enticed simply by seeing words displayed outside of buildings.
“You should be questioning yourself now whether you are a real believer of Allah or you just love to portray the image that you are a believer,” the person said.
Others bluntly told the Bruneian not to visit Miri since he was so offended by such messages.
“That signs have been there for ages, if it’s something that you people are offended (by) it would have been taken a long time ago,” one user named AnakReddit said.
The criticism was not entirely local, as others on the subreddit who appeared to be Bruneian also told “patrioticbrunei” to stay within his country if he was offended by the Christian messages.
One by the name of “LMAO-ROTF” advised the complainant to dispose of his passport and never leave the country again.
“When you choose to go to Miri, you have to adapt their way of life, their customs, their culture, their traditions, because that is where you choose to go,” he added.
Separately, Miri Mayor Lawrence Lai called on foreign visitors to respect locals’ way of life.
“We welcome any foreign visitors, regardless of their racial and religious backgrounds, to come and witness how we in Miri live in harmony with one another,” he was quoted as saying by Utusan Borneo, adding that Sarawak practises religion freedom.
“If what we practise have offended any one or visitor, my advice to them is to come more often so that they will know about us,” Lai said when asked to comment on the posting.
Miri-based Dayak Association of Sarawak (PEDAS) secretary-general Bill Kayong said he has not heard any Christian or Christian groups filing reports with the police or the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) against the posting by the Brunei citizen.
“Normally, for things of this nature, we will be informed first before any report is lodged,” Kayong said, adding that PEDAS at this stage has no plan to lodge any report.
Allegations of Christians proselytising to the local Muslim community surface sporadically in Malaysia, although this instance may be the first such cross-border complaint.
