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The Bethany Church, a branch of another church in Malacca, holds services in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia for its 200 worshippers from Indonesia.
Both churches are members of the Gereja Bethel Indonesia and are generally attended by Indonesian Christians in Malaysia.
Those attending the church are mostly female Indonesian migrants working at factories and who live in the area.
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POLICE AGAIN DENY STOPPING THE CHURCH SERVICE!
Malay Mail Online
Police: We only asked Kajang worshippers to turn volume down
PETALING JAYA, Dec 4 — Police officers only asked church-goers to turn the volume down, Selangor police chief Datuk Abdul Samah Mat said yesterday in response to allegations two police officers had disrupted a church service in Kajang last Sunday.
He said police received a complaint about noise from a shoplot, and two officers were sent there to investigate.
“Only when they arrived did they realise it was a church service,” Abdul Samah said.
“The officers were only responding to the complaint.”
He said that when the officers realised it was a religious event being held at Bethany Church, a converted shoplot, they allowed the service to proceed but advised the church authorities to keep the volume down.
Bethany Church is on the second floor of a shoplot near the Perhentian Kajang bus station.
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Malaysia Chronicle
Wednesday, 03 December 2014 07:29
STOP LYING! Church confirms police tried to disrupt service, OCPD must investigate & apologize – Kian Ming
Written by Ong Kian Ming
I refer to the news reports of two policemen who disrupted a BM church service at the Bethany Church in Kajang. I have spoken to the pastor of the church, Pastor Nelson, and he confirmed the events as reported in the news. He told me that the two police asked him to stop his service immediately and that they left after Pastor Nelson tried to ask them to speak to Pastor Alfred Tais, the National Evangelical Christian Federation (NECF)’s BM Commission’s Executive Secretary on the telephone.
Short of someone committing a crime or there being a life threatening emergency, the police have no right to disrupt the services of any religious organization. What the two policemen did at Bethany Church is an infringement of the constitutional right of freedom of religion of the members of the church and Pastor Nelson.
Furthermore, the issue of whether the shoplot in question can or cannot be used as a place of worship is not a matter for the police to decide but for the local council, in this case, Majlis Perbandaran Kajang (MPKj). For the police to take action without the presence of MPKj on the basis of a few ‘complains’ is unacceptable and without basis especially when no crime had been committed.
I call upon the Kajang OCPD Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahap to carry out a detailed investigation for this case and if necessary, to ask his officers to apologise to Pastor Nelson and his congregation. I will also meet with the Kajang OCPD to demand his guarantee that such an occurrence should never happen again in the area under his jurisdiction.
Ong Kian Ming is MP for Serdang
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The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship in Malaysia has acknowledged that the Bethany Church in Kajang is a member church. – Screen grab of NECF website, December 2, 2014.
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DID THE POLICE STOP THE CHURCH SERVICE?
Well, they tried but when they failed, they went away, with the “promise” that they would be back “with letters of complaint they had received”.
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Malay Mail Online
We did not stop Kajang church’s ‘noisy’ service, say police
DECEMBER 2 — Police did not disrupt a Bahasa Malaysia church service during last Sunday’s incident at the Bethany Church in Kajang, The Malaysian Insider reported today.
The news portal reported that police were responding to a complaint of excessive noise and that a loudhailer was being used in the church.
“Policemen went to check. No church service was stopped.
“Police was just there to check what it was all about and after being informed that a church service was being conducted, the officers left,” the Insider quoted Kajang police chief Assistant Commissioner Ab Rashid Ab Wahab as saying.
“We contacted the complainant after that and told him to lodge a police report if he was still unhappy. However, the complainant refused to do so.”
http://m.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/we-did-not-stop-kajang-churchs-service-say-police
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Malaysian Insider
Cops went overboard stopping church’s Bahasa Malaysia service, says MP
Complaints about “noise” and the use of a shoplot by a church in Bangi saw police officers disrupting the Bahasa Malaysia service last Sunday, a move criticised by the area’s MP, Ong Kian Ming, who said such matters should have been handled by the local council instead.
Ong, the Serdang MP, confirmed the incident at the Bethany Church with the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), the umbrella body of evangelical churches in Malaysia of which the church is a member.
“From what I know, the church is located in a shoplot and there were complaints that it should not be used as a church.
“But the police should not have gotten involved as this is a matter for the local council. And the police should definitely have not interrupted any worship service of any religious group,” Ong told The Malaysian Insider.
An NECF spokesperson said the church conducts services in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia as most of its 200 congregants are Indonesia.
NECF was alerted to the intrusion at 11.20am on Sunday and advised the church leaders to lodge a police report.
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The police reportedly told the church’s pastor that they were acting on complaints by “neighbours”.
The church, however, is located in a largely commercial area near the Perhentian Kajang bus station.
Its Indonesian pastor, Nelson Sembiling, told The Malaysian Insider that two police officers came on Sunday while he was 10 minutes into delivering the sermon.
They did not enter the church but called a few of the members outside and told them to bring out the church’s leader.
“I went out and identified myself as the pastor and asked if we could finish our service first before discussing the reason for their visit.
“The officers said no and said we had no licence to operate as a church.
“I then told them to raise the matter with NECF as the organisation handles these things, such as church registrations, for us. ‘We are just here to conduct our worship service, we are not disturbing anyone,’ I told the policemen.”
Nelson said the officers insisted that he stop the service failing which they would call “their inspector”.
They did, and then told the pastor that the church service could continue for that day but added they would return.
“They said we could continue the service for today (Sunday) and they would come back with letters of complaint that they have received. I am not sure what they meant by this,” Nelson said.
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weehingthong 