KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — DAP leaders today demanded an apology from the Pahang Islamic Religious Department (JAIP) for claiming in its Hari Raya Haji sermon Thursday that it was against Islam to join the party.
In a press conference at DAP’s headquarters here Pahang DAP chairman Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji said they will give JAIP five days to apologise, failing which, legal action will be taken.
“In their Aidiladha sermon, they said political parties have separated the Muslims in the country and accused us of going against Islam.... this has become a political speech,” Zulpuri Shah said.
“So, we will send a letter to JAIP and demand them to apologise within five days starting today and if there is no response by then, we will initiate legal action against them.”
In the script issued by the Pahang Mufti Department on Thursday, it was written that the Malays in the country was divided by political parties such as Umno, PAS, PKR and the Gerakan Harapan Baru (now Parti Amanah Negara).
The script also said this was exacerbated by Malays joining the DAP, which it claimed was against Islam.
Backing Zulpuri Shah were fellow Malay DAP members such as national laureate Datuk A. Samad Said and constitutional expert Prof Dr Abdul Aziz Bari.
Samad, who is popularly known as Pak Samad, agreed that JAIP should apologise for allowing such accusations to appear in its sermon and said the claim that DAP was anti-Islam was “certainly not true”.
Abdul Aziz said it was “criminal” to single out DAP, adding that there was no reason why the party should be seen as against Islam.
