Unbowed by charges pressed against him for teaching Islam without a permit, Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad has intensified his attack against the Selangor religious authorities, whom he has accused of being stooges of Prime Minister Najib Razak's UMNO party. He vowed to expose "more details" over the next two weeks.
Khalid Samad, the PAS deputy commissioner of Selangor also challenged the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) to come clean on a secret meeting held last month with Jais, other Muslim NGOs and members of the Attorney-General's office.
"I will be increasing my attacks over the next two weeks because I want to show people, the system has been infiltrated by UMNO. Politics has become the overriding motive," Khalid Samad told Malaysia Chronicle.
'Christianisation' to oust MB
Khalid had accused some of the state religious officials of being part of an alleged black conspiracy to oust Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim by getting the Sultan to remove him for allowing the "Christianisation" of the state.
"A denial is not enough, show the minutes of the meeting. Why were the people from the Attorney General's office not involved. How come the Muslim community in Selangor were not informed and Mais only confirms it after I wrote about it in my blog," said Khalid Samad.
In his blog, Khalid had written that the groups met in the wake of the Jais raid on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church Centre to allegedly clamp down on proselytization.The Muslim groups had planned to hand over a memorandum of complaint to the Sultan against the chief minister.
“It looks like an effort to topple him. It is hoped that none of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state executive councillors, especially those from PAS, were involved,” Khalid Samad wrote in his blog.
Victimising Khalid Samad, like Dr Asri previously
Jais is the Selangor Islamic Religious Department and had a day ago charged Khalid under Section 119 of the Selangor Islamic Religious Administration Enactment for allegedly giving a sermon at a surau or prayer hall on August 16.
In Selangor, religious scholars have to get a permit from JAIS before they can teach Islam. The move is regarded a way for the Jais to exert control over the Muslims in the state. Muslim scholars whom they regard as a threat to their authority, such as former Perlis Mufti Dr Asri Zainul Abidin, have been victimised before in the same way as Khalid. Jais even refused to renew the permit of PAS Selangor Commissoner Dr Abdul Rani Osman.
"I would not be surprsied at all if this is their motive. It will get worse when the General Election gets closer because they would want to deny us access to certain platforms to reach the Muslim community," said Khalid, when asked if Jais was trying to 'silence' him over the DUMC and MB Khalid fiascos.
He admitted to not having a permit but denied teaching, as accused by Jais, saying that he was merely giving a talk. "It is wrong to teach but where does it say it is wrong to preach or talk about Islam."
"Look at how fast Jais can act when they want to. They suddenly summon me, charged me and even set November 24 to hear my trial. But when it comes to the DUMC report, see how they drag their feet," the PAS MP added.
"The entire raid lasted only about an hour or so and yet they have to ask for an extension of time. It is nowe almost two months. Is this fair to all the parties inluding the 12 Muslims accused of apostasy and the church officials who have to put up with the bad publicity and threats."
Mais denies
Meanwhile, Mais chairman Mohamad Adzib Mohd Isa today confirmed the meeting, but denied it was part of a conspiracy to topple MB Khalid Ibrahim. According to Adzib, the meeting was to explain to the NGOs why Jais raided the DUMC chuch on August 3.
“I, as the Mais head, and Jais explained what happened to the Islamic NGOs... not just them reading from the papers or The Malaysian Insider... but this was not a political meeting, merely to explain what actually happened,” Malaysian Insider quoted Adzib as saying.
“We only explained. At the end, they said they have received accurate facts... Mais and Jais’ duty is to give out correct information.”
When asked to confirm if the meeting was attended by representatives from the A-G’s Chambers, Adzib only replied that some of the NGO members present in the meeting also served within government agencies like the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim).
“But they are also part of NGOs and they were representing the NGOs, not any government agency,” Adzib fudged.
- Malaysia Chronicle
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