Thementag “Diversity and Neighborhood in Malaysia and Beyond

Religion is of course a question of faith, but it is also closely linked to questions of identity. In much of Southeast Asia, there is a long history of pluralism in diversity and neighborliness. In recent decades, however, tensions have intensified, especially between different religious groups, and polarization in societies has increased, often linked to the issue of ethnicity.

Malaysia, for example, is a multi-religious society: the Malaysian constitution guarantees freedom of religion – similar to Indonesia or the Philippines. Nevertheless, Islam is the official religion of the federation and all ethnic Malays are to be Muslims by constitution.

Christianity, which is only the third largest group in the country after the Muslim and Buddhist religions, is sometimes regarded as an “immigrant religion”. Surprisingly, however, there are very different groups of Christians, sometimes organized by language or ethnicity.

STM (Seminari Teoloji Malaysia) is an example of how a whole range of denominations, languages and ethnicities are united in one faith. On the occasion of the visit of the group from STM, Mission OneWorld is very proud to host a seminar day on “Diversity and Neighborhood in Malaysia and Beyond”. We will reflect on the situation of Christian churches, which as “constitutional minorities” find themselves in a special political situation and not only face a sometimes adverse climate, but can also provide some encouraging insights on what it means to seek the common good and love one’s neighbor, no matter what religion they belong to.

Dr. Sung Kim, Thomas Paulsteiner und Julia Ratzmann

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