March 19 marked one month since the disappearance of
Malaysian Pastor Raymond Koh, whom family and friends believe was kidnapped
because of his interaction with Muslim Malays.
Police have arrested a suspect in the kidnapping but have
not released any information about Koh’s possible whereabouts.
On Sunday, March 5, hundreds of Christians around Malaysia
held candlelight vigils in solidarity with Koh’s family. Holding candles and
signs reading, “Where is Pastor Raymond?” and, “Let Raymond go,” the people
prayed for the pastor’s safe return.
“We pray for his safe and quick release,” said his wife,
Susannah Lieu Sow Yoke, as she broke into tears. “At this time we look to God
and [hope that] he’ll be safe and we’ll meet him again.”
The morning of Feb. 13, while Koh was on his way to a
friend’s house in Petaling Jaya near Kuala Lumpur, three black SUVs surrounded
his car and forced it to stop. Nearby closed circuit TV cameras captured video
of masked men getting out of their cars and walking toward Koh. A struggle
appeared to take place in Koh’s car before all of the vehicles left the area.
The whole event took less than a minute, and Koh has not been seen since.
The family offered a $22,500 reward for information on the
pastor’s whereabouts, but so far none has surfaced.
The news shocked Malaysians, with the Malaysian Consultative
Council of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Taoists releasing a public
statement that read, “News of [Koh’s] abduction have fanned fears across all
religious divides in Malaysian society, as it is unprecedented for a man of
faith to be abducted in this way in our peaceful, multicultural country.”
Koh, 62, led an Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA)
congregation in Malaysia for 20 years before starting the ministry Harapan
Komuniti in 2004. The group helps single mothers, drug addicts, and people
suffering from HIV/AIDS. It also holds an after-school program and English
tutoring for students. Harapan Komuniti doesn’t discriminate against whom it
helps, and many of the recipients of its aid are Muslim Malays.
In 2011, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais)
raided a thanksgiving and fundraising dinner hosted by Harapan Komuniti at a
Methodist church. The religious police were concerned Koh was trying to
proselytize 12 Muslim Malays who had attended the dinner, but they ended up
dropping the case for lack of evidence.
A friend of Koh, (who wished to be anonymous for security
reasons) said that after the 2011 raid, many Muslim Malays were angry with him.
They sent a bullet to his home and stopped by his house to ask him to leave the
country. They passed around his photo, calling on Muslims to kill him. In an
interview with Malaysian newspaper The Star, Koh’s son Jonathan said that since
2011 “we have been evading them. We have been moving around. We also received a
lot of death threats on the internet. We have people following us.”
Police are investigating a link between the kidnapping and
the threats against Koh. The arrest in the case reportedly followed a ransom
demand.
Islam is the official religion in Malaysia, and Muslims are
governed under state-administered Sharia law.
Compiled by Angela Lu
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