Incidents of Malay-Muslims residents protesting against the building of places of worship other than their own in their backyard would not stop re-occurring even if the Hindu temple issue in Section 23 Shah Alam is solved in the next few days.
Protests against the building of places of worship for adherents other than Islam as in the Section 23 incident will not be an isolated case. These incidents happens not because of anyone's God instruction but are human created due to intolerance towards others religionists and weak understanding of one's own religion.
When the country's population increases every year, more and more housing facilities are required to accommodate the expanding population especially those in the urban areas. More land are required to build houses, public infrastructures and transportation, commercial and industrial lots and recreation and community facilities. When this happens, existing places of worship located in estates and sub-urban areas which has been in existence years before the arrival of development faces the threat of eviction and relocation.
Basing the on the demographic growth of different religions and races in this country, the time will come when only a few residential areas which majority of the residents are not non-Muslims. By then where can the non-Muslims have their place of worships and practice their devotion in a peaceful atmosphere but at the midst of Muslim majority areas. Muslim majority states like those in Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis are already having many non-Muslims place of worships in their areas where non-Muslims are less than Muslims. If Muslims in these states can live with the Buddhist temples and Thai Wats built nearby their villages for so many centuries, why Muslims in a premier state like Selangor are having issue with it?
The human factor in creating this problem to the people and the government happens when the town planners and developers did not take into serious considerations the need of allocating ample lands for the building of places of worship other than Islam. Civil servants in state planning agencies and land offices who are mostly Muslims may not be motivated and enlightenment enough to look into the religious needs of the other communities.
To enable them to obtain the necesssary development approvals, developers will adhered to the official requirement to designate a piece of land for the building of a surau or a mosque but will be not be driven to set aside a piece of land for those other than Islam as it may not be in the development order requirements.
Even if the developers do take this need into consideration, they will most probably be allocating just one piece of land for religion other than Islam, which means the Buddhist, Christians, Catholics, Hindus, Taoists and Sikh would have to scramble for the miserable piece of land.
The Federal and State governments need to develop a policy which will ensure lands are to be made available for the building of places of worships not only for Muslims but also people of other faiths to practice and manage their respective religion as per guaranteed in the Federal Constituition. It will not help if fire fighting methods are activated whenever a similiar issue arises from time to time.
The writing is already on the wall. There is no other choice but to acknowleged and accept that this country comprises a multi-religious society. Everybody have to live with each other, respect one another and accept the differences in each religious beliefs and learn to live peacefully- within and without disregarding one's personal belief and political affiliation.
The government have to come out with a long-term concrete plan to safeguard and ensure the religious needs of all faiths are well taken of. A law must be drawn to ensure town planners allocate land for all religions in specific area of new development in their town planning and developers must be compelled to fulfill their obligations. If it fails it will not be surprising if similiar incidences like the one in Shah Alam will be replicated elsewhere by bigots copycats. - Loka
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