PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa is seeking to meet Chua Soi Lek soon to clear the MCA president's misgivings over the role of Islam in governance.

pas muktamar 130610 nasharuddin mat isa 2 "I am confident that his statement was due to his confusion towards Islam," said Nasharuddin ( left ) in a statement today, responding to Chua's speech on Friday in Kedah.

Chua, speaking at the Kedah MCA Annual Convention in Alor Setar, had warned that the Islamisation race between Umno and PAS was detrimental to the country's future, quoting a study of 57 Muslim-majority countries that showed the countries lagging in socio-economic standards because of a an over-emphasis on religion.

Nasharuddin said the facts raised by Chua were not caused by flaws with the Islamic religion, but by corrupt governments which failed to implement the basic tenets of Islam in its administration.

"As the deputy president of PAS, I'm obliged to meet and explain the real contents of Islam to Chua. I believe Islam has the solutions for the problems raised," said Nasharuddin.

Suffering from 'Islamophobia'

Meanwhile, PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan said that Chua's speech showed that he suffered from "chronic Islamophobia" and was quoting questionable data from a book.

He described the book ‘Malaysia and the club of Doom' by Syed Akbar Ali as "weak and immature" and lamented that Chua had failed to refer to other Muslim scholars and intellectuals.

NONE "It becomes worse when Chua ( right ) concludes that there is rampant corruption in Muslim-majority nations. This is the effect of Chua being in BN and (alongside) Umno for too long, and being able to see rampant corruption up close," said Nasrudin in a statement today.

Nasrudin added that Chua had also failed to point out that Umno members had faced many corruption cases, while the corruption allegations and charges against the PAS government in Kelantan were rare.

On Chua's allegations that PAS' administration would lead to a generation of youths who do not care about social and economic development, Nasrudin said the MCA leader had no moral standing to make such a statement.

"In fact, even Chua himself had once stunned the nation when he slipped into social degradation, which he is so worried about," said Nasrudin, likely referring to a scandal in 2008 that saw the MCA president being temporarily sacked and later suspended.

Umno responsible

He said that it was Umno, and thus MCA, who should be held responsible for the problems faced by the youth and the economy of the country.

As proof, Nasrudin cited the declining foreign investors' confidence in the country reflected in a nosedive in foreign direct investment figures, which he pinned on the federal government.

"The reality is that the country is administrated by BN, and MCA is a member. Why is Chua dragging PAS into this?"

Yesterday, Chua defended his statements in the face of fierce criticism, saying he was merely quoting from Syed Akbar's book and that certain politicians were taking his speech out of context.

Chua said considering the many contributions brought about by the golden age of Islam, modern figures could not be ignored that Muslim-majority countries, which make up 1.4 billion of the world's population, made up only five percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and showed the highest rates of illiteracy and poverty.