National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) denies supporting calls to bar the serving of alcoholic drinks on Malaysian Airlines flights.

Referring to the the Malay daily  Sinar Harian's  report yesterday, NECF's executive secretary said that he was "misquoted" and that his words were "taken out of context".

"I never at any time stated that I or NECF supported the proposal to bar the serving of alcoholic drinks on MAS flights.

"My words were taken out of context. I was completely misquoted," he said to  Malaysiakini  when contacted today.

Tais (right in photo) added that the question on the proposal to support the bar was never put before him or NECF.

The daily on Tuesday reported that the Christian leader "supports the proposal to ban serving alcohol on board MAS flights".

It also quoted Tais as saying that while the NECF supports the banning of alcohol on board, this might be "unfair" to international passengers whose culture may permit the consumption of alcohol.

Responding to Sinar Harian, Kelantan PAS Youth information chief Nor Azariza Mohd Alawi said the government should be "ashamed" that even Christians are calling for its ban.

"The government should feel ashamed when NECF executive secretary Alfred Tais said that even Christianity does not encourage the consumption of liquor, and that NECF supports the proposal to bar the serving of alcoholic drinks on MAS flights," he said in a statement yesterday.

Unsubstantiated inference

Clarifying today, Tais said he meant implementing a ban on alcoholic drinks would be tough seeing that MAS flights are not exclusively for Malaysians.

He also suggested that perhaps the flight's cabin crew can be a little bit more "sensitive" and serve alcohol only to those with no alcoholic restrictions.

"It is difficult to implement a ban because MAS flights has passengers from all around the world. It is not fair to subject them to the ban.

"The best step is perhaps having the cabin crew to be more sensitive and have them serve alcohol only to those with no restrictions of drinking it.

"Hence to say that NECF supports the proposal to bar the serving of alcoholic drinks on MAS flights is untrue and merely an inference which is unsubstantiated, which ought to be removed," he added.

He also said that his observations are merely from a general Christian perspective.

'Even non-Muslims know it's wrong'