Malaysia: Freedom of Religion

(asked on 23rd March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to support freedom of religion in Malaysia.


Answered by
Nigel Adams Portrait
Nigel Adams
This question was answered on 29th March 2021

The British Government is firmly committed to standing up for freedom of religion, and for individuals to practise their beliefs free from fear. These views are well known in Malaysia, and our longstanding relationship allows us to raise concerns in this area at senior levels with the Malaysian government.

HMG funded a project in 2020 to better understand attitudes towards freedom of religion or belief in Malaysia, facilitate two interfaith community exchange programmes, and develop a policy recommendation paper on the promotion of inter-religious understanding and education.

Our High Commission in Kuala Lumpur regularly raises the issue of freedom of religion or belief with their Malaysian counterparts. The Minister for South Asia and the Commonwealth, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, discussed freedom of religion or belief with the then Malaysian Minister for National Unity, Waytha Morthy, in January 2020.

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