PAS has questioned Umno’s action in protesting the construction of a Methodist church in Tanjung Karang, whereas the land had been given in the 1980s during Umno’s time, said Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad.

Khalid was referring to the Tanjung Karang Umno protest at Lot 178, Tanjung Karang on Jan 9, where he said the protest showed that Umno members are hypocrites as it had approved the sale of the land and now object to its construction.

“They are trying to show that the Pakatan Rakyat government had given the land to non-Muslims for them to construct the church. However, the land had been allocated for construction of a church since the 1980s,” Khalid said yesterday.

“A search of the records for the lot shows that the land was given to the Methodist Church (West Malaysia) trustee for the construction of a church on April 26, 1982.”

Also present with Khalid was Tanjung Karang PAS division deputy head Misran Serman.

Khalid said the Tanjung Karang PAS division is aware that the church is to be built in a Malay area, but the fact of the matter is that they have the right to develop the land as it had been theirs for more than 30 years.

He added that Tanjung Karang PAS “does not support and does not protest” to the church's construction after knowing the background.

“Even the third holiest place for Muslims, the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, is located next to a church. The second caliph, Omar Al Khattab, had visited that church when he arrived in Jerusalem.

“The size of the land for the church’s construction in Tanjung Karang is as big as a bungalow lot and the protesters should not give a picture as if it is as big as the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur. For PAS it is the Christians’ right as it is a piece of land which they bought and managed to change its status for the construction of the church,” he said, also querying why Umno had not created a fuss then.

Clearly, Khalid said, it is a form of political strategy by the nationalist political party to create a rift between Muslims and Christians.