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17 May 2019
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The stamp featuring a church has been issued since 2016, two years before Pakatan Harapan came into power, according to Pos Malaysia in response to Isma president Aminuddin Yahaya’s criticism.
“Pos Malaysia issued the ‘Places of Worship’ second series on May 15. The first series was issued in November 2016,” it said in a brief statement to Malaysiakini this evening.
In a Facebook posting yesterday, the Malay-Muslim NGO leader described the stamp as “another example of Muslims being bullied.”
“So if outsiders label Malaysia as a Christian nation, we should not be angered because we have been portrayed as such,” he said.
In another posting this evening, Aminuddin revealed that he has deleted his earlier remarks.
“Due to my posting on the stamp receiving widespread coverage and there are quarters who are not comfortable, I decided to delete the posting.
“Thank you for all the comments and views… To those who were offended, angered and saddened, I apologise,” he added.
The church pictured on the stamp is the St George’s Church in Penang.
Besides the church, other houses of worship featured in the Pos Malaysia series include the Masjid Jubli Perak Sultan Ismail Petra (Kelantan), the Hong San Si Temple (Sarawak), the Sri Karthivel Murugan Maha Parasakthi Patchai Amman Temple (Perak) and the Gurdwara Sahib (Labuan).
At its launch in 2016, Pos Malaysia said the stamps were meant to show Malaysia as a diverse country as well as showcase the unique architecture of each house of worship.
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/476528
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https://twitter.com/gst183/status/1129299162334240768
KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — The president of Islamic group Isma, Aminuddin Yahaya, asserted that a Malaysian postage stamp bearing the image of a church was further indication that Muslims were increasingly being sidelined in Malaysia.
However, his attempt was quickly debunked by civil rights lawyer Syahredzan Johan, who pointed out on Twitter that the stamp series was first issued in 2016 when Barisan Nasional (BN) was still the government of the day.
“According to Aminuddin Yahaya, the president of Isma, Islam is being bullied because now there is a stamp with a church. But in 2016 was under Barisan Nasional. So Isma kept quiet then.
“In 2016. Was Islam also bullied in the BN era?”
The stamps are part of a commemorative series showing the different houses of worship in Malaysia and include a mosque, a Chinese temple, a Hindu temple, a gurdwara, and a church.
The 2019 edition that Aminuddin highlighted was the second issue of the series.
The aide to DAP MP Lim Kit Siang appended a screen capture of Aminuddin’s remarks.
In these, the Isma president signalled his audience not to be upset if the stamps cause foreigners to consider Malaysia a Christian country.
“Another form of ‘bullying’ towards Muslims. Oh, my country,” he wrote.
Twitter users have been and are continuing to scorn the Isma president’s remarks.
Since BN’s defeat in the general election, religious groups such as Isma have been pushing the narrative that Islam and its adherents in the country are under threat from the Pakatan Harapan administration that they portray as DAP-dominated.
Aminuddin is also the head of the Ummah group that organised the controversial Himpunan Pertahanan Kedaulatan earlier this month, which the police are investigating for suspected violations of public assembly laws.
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weehingthong 