Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today attributed the occurrence of incidents deemed insulting to Islam to the poor race relations brought about by a weakening BN.

He added that when BN was strong, such incidents did not happen.

" If we look, the widening gap between races has reached a level where there are some who dare to make statements that cause anger.

"We have given freedom, there is no more Internal Security Act (ISA) but they are becoming bolder by insulting Prophet Muhammad and making statements that insult Muslims breaking fast and others.

NONE "All these never happened before because last time all races supported BN," he said in an interview with the weekend edition of Utusan Malaysia today.

He appeared to refer to sex bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee  ( right ) who had uploaded a photograph on Facebook inviting people to break fast with Bak Kut Teh together with the halal logo embedded on the Ramadhan greeting.

Mahathir lamented that the Chinese community has abandoned the ruling coalition whereas the Malay community too is separated into three political factions.

Furthermore, he said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's cash handouts and repeal of supposed draconian laws had also failed to reverse the ruling coalition's fortune.

'Upheaval in Umno'

Meanwhile, weighing in on the upcoming Umno party election, the elder statesman warned of upheaval.

"In whatever way (we conduct the party elections) there would be upheaval because that is human instinct," he said.

However, Mahathir said like in previous years, Umno will ultimately persevere and ride out of the storm.

umno supreme council special meeting 260809 azalina othman Mahathir has backed sitting Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to retain the Umno presidency and said that the position should not be challenged.

However, at least one major clash is brewing as both incumbent Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and challenger Azalina Othman ( right ) have said they will contest for the post of Umno Wanita chief.

Incumbent Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin too has said that he was open for his position to be challenged.

In a related matter, Sinar Harian today reported that Shafie Apdal will defend his position as Umno vice president in the coming party elections.