On January 28, a customs officer confiscated two boxes containing 32 Bibles from a Christian woman in the Kuala Lumpur airport as she was returning from the Philippines. When the officer asked Juliana Nichols to open the boxes she was carrying and declare their contents, she produced a letter from her parish priest stating that the English Bibles were meant for use in her church. The officer told her that thetexts needed to be cleared with the Internal Security Ministry's Control Division of Publications and Al-Quran Texts and seized them. The general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, ReverendHermen Shastri, issued a press statement on February 4 that called for the immediate release of the Bibles and asked for an official apology from the Royal Malaysian Customs Department. "The Council of Churches is flabbergasted that such acts are happening in our country with such frequency and impunity," said Shastri. "We want to state categorically that the Bible is Holy Scripture for Christians.... No authority on earth should deny Christians the right to possess, read and travel with their Bibles." The Bibles have since been returned to Nichols, according to reports received this week.
This is only the most recent in a number of troubling incidents in Malaysia that would seem to signal a declining level of religious liberty for religious minorities. Pray that freedom of religion will be upheld for all people in Malaysia. Pray that Christians in Malaysia will rest in the promises of God's provision and strength as they serve Him amid rising opposition (Hebrews 10:32-39).
For more information on the persecution of Christians in Malaysia, go to the Malasysia Country Report.
Ethnicity (%) Bumiputera (63.8 - Malays and indigenous peoples), Chinese (20.6), Indian (6), others (0.6), non-citizens (9)
Religion (%) Muslim (63.5), Buddhist (18.7), Christian (9.1), Hindu (6.1), Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions (0.9), Other (1.8),
Leader King Sultan Ibrahim ibni al-Marhum Sultan Iskandar (2024)
Government type Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Legal system Mixed legal system of English common law, Islamic law, and customary law; judicial review of legislative acts in the Federal Court at request of supreme head of the federation
Source: CIA World Factbook
Pray for Malaysia
Pray that Christians will stand firm in their faith, despite opposition
Pray that Malaysian Christians will be free to practice their faith in Jesus Christ.
Pray that all Christians in Malaysia will be able to freely access the Bible.
Since the disappearance of her husband in 2017, Susanna Koh has continued to search for answers. In 2020, the Christian woman filed a lawsuit against the Malaysian government in an attempt to force them to reveal what they know about the abduction of her husband, Pastor Raymond Koh. As a result of the lawsuit, the government was ordered to release the classified findings of a task force that had been created to look into Pastor Raymond's disappearance, as well as that of a social activist named Amri Che Mat.
On February 13th, 2017, Pastor Raymond Koh was kidnapped in broad daylight. More than seven years later, his wife Susanna continues to search tirelessly for answers regarding her husband's disappearance. As part of this process, she filed a lawsuit in 2020 against the Malaysian government for negligence.
Pastor Raymond Koh was no stranger to persecution when he was abducted off the streets of Malaysia on February 13th, 2017. The incident was caught on security cameras and, although no information about Pastor Raymond's captors has ever been released by the authorities, it is believed that government security forces were responsible for the incident. Video footage of the abduction is available here. For previously published reports about the missing pastor, see this list.
Pastor Raymond Koh, Jonathan (son), Susanna (wife), and Esther (daughter) Photo (family): Free Malaysia Today
On February 13th, 2017, surveillance cameras captured Pastor Raymond Koh being forced to bring his vehicle to a sudden stop before masked men abducted him in an operation that appeared to be executed with military precision. The abducted pastor has not been seen nor heard from since the incident. Under suspicion of state police for attempting to convert ethnic Malays to Christianity, Pastor Raymond and his wife Susanna received death threats prior to the incident.
Population
