Minister: Pray against attacks on Islam

Muslims all across the country need to offer special prayers for the Malaysian government as it heads off to Switzerland to defend its human rights record before selected members of the United Nations.

These prayers, which should stretch from now until the end of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Oct 24, were needed to uphold Islam's position in Malaysia and counter those who may seek to undermine the country's human rights record, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom said.

"All provisions in our constitution must be respected by all citizens in or outside the country," Jamil (left) is quoted as saying by Bernamatoday. 

He said no party should raise issues that can challenge Islam as Malaysia's official religion.

Jamil was on his haj pilgrimage when he made the prayer request, which was directed to the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) as a recommendation to all mosques and surau in the country.

The UPR process requires the human rights situation of every UN member state to be reviewed once every four-and-a-half years, during which comments and recommendations from the other states are also drawn.

A coalition of 54 Malaysian NGOs, called Comango, said last month they were outraged that issues such as irregularities in the 13th general election, the abuse of police power, rising religious extremism and trampling of the rights of migrant workers were all markedly downplayed.

According to the Bernama report, Jamil was, however, more concerned about demands for religious freedom and those championing rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transgender community.