Nancy tries to douse fire over Bible-burning row

Mkini

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri has hit back at her critics for supposedly condoning Perkasa’s urging last year to burn the Malay language Bible.

“I never said that. You better check your facts before making such remark,” she tweeted today to former deputy minister Saifuddin Abdullah and Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang.

Tan tweeted two days ago: “I just can’t believe a minister would claim there is nothing wrong with a threat to burn Bibles with the word ‘Allah’, because it is merely defending Islam.”

Nancy had received heavy fire from Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng for her parliamentary reply that the government will take no action against Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali for his urging last year to burn the Bible in the Malay language.

Saifuddin in his response said it was wrong for the government to use the excuse of defending Islam to explain its inaction against Ibrahim.

‘Justification provided by AG’s Chambers’

Nancy, in a separate Twitter posting, also rebutted Saifuddin, saying: “Before you make your comments, you better find out the facts first. You have all the means to find out.”

Saifuddin shot back: “Number one, I read your text (parliamentary reply). Number two, I was informed by the senior journalist you spoke to and number three, I read your full statement”.

Nancy’s parliamentary written reply on Wednesday states: “In relation to the case involving Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali, the outcome of police investigation is as follows…

“His (Ibrahim Ali’s) statement was not meant to cause religious disharmony (kekecohan agama) but was only meant to defend the sanctity of Islam. Therefore the case was not prosecuted”.

Following a fire storm of criticism, Nancy’s office released another statement, explaining that her statement had been misinterpreted as the written reply was only partially quoted.

The office went on to say that the justification was provided to Nancy by the Attorney-General’s Chambers, which is responsible for deciding on the prosecution of any case.

Ibrahim had early last year threatened to burn copies of the Malay language Bible for using the word ‘Allah’, claiming that it could confuse Muslims.

Despite heavy fire, the government has taken no action against Ibrahim, with minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan even giving the excuse that the Perkasa chief was merely suggesting destroying Bibles that contained “misprints“.

‘Nancy must take AG to task’

Meanwhile, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo in a statement today urged Nancy to step up and take attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail to task for refusing to prosecute Ibrahim.

“As the de facto law minister, Nancy must play a greater role. She must demonstrate that she is independent and that she has the courage to speak up against the attorney-general and do what is right,” Gobind (right) said.

He added Nancy’s use of the attorney-general’s justification that Ibrahim’s action was in line with Article 11(4) of the federal constitution, which prevents propagation of other religions to Muslims, was legally flawed.

Calling the explanation “nonsense”, Gobind also urged Gani to resign.

“No one has the right to commit criminal offences in defence of their religion in this country and if Gani is going to start this unlawful and dangerous trend here in Malaysia, then he is, to my mind, certainly unfit to be attorney-general,” he said.