KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 — PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang has said that Islamophobia is a “new weapon” that is currently being asserted by “orientalists” who study Islam to find faults and weaknesses in the religion.

Taking to Facebook last night, Hadi also said that Islamophobia is being used as a mental weapon against Islam by a “government made by colonisers”, political parties, secular groups, and the enemies of Islam especially on internet media.

“Islamophobia is being argued with hate speech and animosity towards Islam, especially by orientalists that study Islam not based on the true Islamic knowledge from the al-Quran, hadith and eminent Islamic scholars,” he said.

He also said that Islamophobia is being used to stop “the true Islam” from taking back power and governing the country.

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He added that Islam does not use coercion and is meant to protect the oppressed.

“Therefore, there is not even a little reason for phobia against Islam if its teachings are studied in an honest manner from original sources, not copies or lies,” he said.

This comes after Hadi had made a Facebook posting on Sunday saying that Chinese are not strangers to him, as his grandfather had adopted many Chinese children during the Second World War and he had a Chinese in-law.

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He had also wished people a Happy Chinese New Year and said the celebration should be used to bring Malaysians closer to one another.