Pahang Islamic Affairs Department must publicly apologise for and retract a Hari Raya Aidiladha sermon, which allegedly painted DAP as anti-Islam , or face legal action, the party’s Muslim members say.

Pahang DAP chairperson Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puri said the sermon read out last Thursday wrongly accused the party of such.

“Pahang DAP will send a letter to the Pahang Islamic Affairs Department (Jaip) or the mufti’s office to demand a retraction of the slanderous speech, as well as an apology through the electronic media in five days.

“Otherwise, we Muslims in DAP will, as individuals, take legal action against the Pahang Islamic Department for the sermon,” he said at the DAP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

An excerpt of the sermon text reads:

“Lately, we see obvious fissures among Muslims in this country, especially among Malays. This is because political parties are prioritised above unity and Islamic brotherhood, like Umno, PAS, PKR and now a new party (sic) called Gerakan Harapan Baru. In fact, there are also Muslims who join the DAP, which is clearly anti-Islam.

“Muslims should unite with one voice despite political differences…”

Tengku Zulpuri (photo) , who is also Mentakab assemblyperson, said Muslim DAP members deny that they have ever gone against the basic tenets of Islam.

"They accuse Malay, Muslim DAP members of going against Islam, but what is it that we are supposedly against?

"There are five basic tenets of Islam, and we believe in all those five tenets. None of us reject it.

"And we have never called for separate prayers led by different imams. This has never happened. We also never took political oaths with our wives as collateral. Never," he said.

During the height of the PAS-Umno conflict in the 1980s, some mosques would hold two separate congregational prayers, as party supporters refused to be led in prayer by those supporting the opposing party.

Recently it was revealed that Kelantan PAS mandates all of its elected representatives to swear that they will divorce their spouses, with no possibility of reconciliation, if they ever leave PAS.

'Seditious sermon'

The press conference was also attended by national laureate A Samad Said and law professor Abdul Aziz Bari - both DAP members.

Samad said Jaip had gone overboard by accusing Malays who join DAP as opposing their own community.

"There is not indication that DAP goes against Islam. Don't make unsubstantiated claims that those who join DAP are tools used to smear Islam and challenge Malays," he said.

Abdul Aziz added that Jaip's sermon could be categorised as seditious under the Sedition Act.

He said DAP has consistently upheld Islam as the religion of the federation.

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