Three years, and still no word from abducted Malaysian pastor

Malaysia (MNN) — Mysterious attackers took Pastor Raymond Koh from his vehicle on this day three years ago.

Gone in 40 seconds.

As captured on a nearby surveillance camera, three black SUV’s surrounded his car and pulled him over. More assailants quickly arrived, and in less than a minute he was being driven away.

Malaysia’s Human Rights Commission would later blame the attack on on a special branch the Malaysian police, but no one has officially taken the blame. We still don’t know where Pastor Koh is.

Now, Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) USA has released a petition, available for anyone to sign, demanding that the Malaysian government release any information about Raymond Koh and his whereabouts.

VOM’s Todd Nettleton says, “So on this anniversary, we want people to pray for Pastor Raymond, for his wife Susanna, and for their children, and we want people to sign that petition and ask the Malaysian government, ‘Hey, tell us what happened to pastor Raymond Koh.’”

Ethnicity and religion in Malaysia

(Screen capture courtesy of Prayercast)

Nettleton says, “We are certain he was targeted for sharing the Gospel,” and gives a look into Malaysian politics and culture to explain why.

Different ethnicities such as Chinese or Indian are allowed to be practicing Christians. But Nettleton says, “If you are an ethnic Malay person, you’re not supposed to hear the Gospel. You’re not supposed to be a Christian. Ethnic melees are supposed to be 100% Muslim, so any person who is suspected of reaching out with the Gospel to ethnic Malays becomes a target and is seen as a troublemaker.”

Pastor Koh had been threatened previously for treating the Gospel as the good news of Christ, and not as a mere extension of ethnic identity. Nettleton says that several years before the abduction someone mailed him a box of bullets. “A very subtle way of saying, ‘hey, if you keep up your ministry activities, this is what’s going to happen to you.’”

Time to act

(Courtesy of VOM USA on Facebook.)

Nettleton hopes this is a good time to get information about Koh, because the government has a new leader since the abduction.

“And what we hope is that offers some opportunity for him to be open about what happened. It was not on his watch. Hopefully, he doesn’t feel obligated to cover up for the last person who might have been involved. And so, we hope that that change of government is an opportunity where the new government will say, ‘Okay, we’re willing to open the books, we’re willing to show you what we know about this situation.’” 

Please sign the petition, which VOM will deliver to the Malaysian embassy in Washington D.C. And please pray that information will be released about Raymond Koh.

Pray also that the Gospel of Jesus Christ would change Malaysia, and that Malays would see that their faith is not tied to their ethnicity.

Church in Malaysia (Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)