Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has slammed the authorities for inactionconcerning those behind allegations that potentially incite racial hatred that have since been proven false.

Lim said in a statement today that two such incidents have shown to be false, citing a Facebook posting of a Parents Teacher Association (PTA) chairperson that Bibles were being distributed to Muslims in the school.

The other case, he said, was a Terengganu Umno Youth leader's allegation that the state plans to ban Friday sermons.

"These two allegations against the Penang state government have been proven to be completely false and unsubstantiated.

"According to the police, no one has been caught for distributing such bibles, nor has there been any police report lodged over the matter.

"The PTA chairman has now removed his false allegation from his Facebook account," he said.

He also called the alleged Friday sermon ban in Penang "nothing but utter nonsense".

"And yet, no action has been taken against those who were responsible for spreading those lies...

"What is so dangerous about such lies is that they can incite and provoke racial strife and disrupt our social harmony among various religions," he said.

Lim said despite the many incidents, "Penangites are smart enough to distinguish lies that will not succeed in undermining and destabilising the Pakatan Penang state government".

On Thursday, Penang executive councillor Abdul Malik Kassim was reported saying those who had spread the rumours about the Bible distribution were refusing to cooperate with the religious department's probe.

He said the incident followed a pattern of provocation centering on the  Pakatan-run Penang, from the offensive banners at churches to meat thrown into the Tokun Atas mosque as an attempt by the "same old extremist elements" out to disrupt peace in the state.