The government is the process of drawing up guidelines for the construction of places of worship in new housing areas.

Mashitah Ibrahim, the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, told the Dewan Rakyat that the guidelines will be enforced by the Housing and Local Government Ministry.

“The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) also sits on the committee which is preparing the guidelines,” she said, adding that the rules will be made public when finalised.

Mashitah was responding to a supplementary question from Md Sirat Abu (BN-Bukit Katil) during the Question session this morning.

Sirat cited a Jakim survey from 2007-2009 which had found that  91 percent of the public respect the sensitivities of religious beliefs.

However, he clai azlan med that reality has shown otherwise and asked if there are criteria for building places of worship in new housing areas.

A year ago, Malay-Muslim protestors angered by the Selangor government’s proposed relocation of a Hindu temple to their residential area in Shah Alam had staged a noisy protest, also displaying a severed cow-head.

The demonstrators were eventually let off with a fine of RM1,000 each by the Shah Alam Sessions Court, after pleading guilty to the charge of taking part in an illegal assembly.

Muslim visitors may bring adversity in Islamic teachings