Parti Amanah Negara president Mohamad Sabu’s latest “bullet” fired at his former colleagues in PAS has received unexpected support from the “enemy’s camp” and the Islamist party is forced to defend itself against the combined assault.

Mohamad, in an interview with The Malaysian Insider today, had reportedly said he is worried that "IS-style" thinking has infiltrated the Islamist party, and wants the authorities to step in and investigate.

“For example in PAS, we weren’t aware of how some members had gone to Iraq and Syria to fight there. And then we were told that our members had gone there.

“And then there came a story of how Ustaz Lotfi (Ariffin) had died there,” said Mohamad, referring to former PAS Kedah Youth information chief Lotfi who was killed in Syria in 2014.

He also reportedly said the party's senior leadership might not even be aware of the presence of such thinking, which later gave birth to the dangerous takfiri culture, or labelling other Muslims as infidels.

In response to Mohamad, Wanita MCA chief Heng Siai Kie claimed the history of PAS has shown that there already exists such elements of sympathies for the Islamic State (IS) terror network and its equivalent form from over a decade ago, before IS was even formally named.

She said that if his allegations were true, PAS should be investigated and banned as threats to national security.

“For starters, instead of chastising Lotfi, the 2015 PAS Dewan Ulama at its muktamar observed a minute’s silence for Lotfi who succumbed to injuries sustained in IS campaign of violence in Syria.

“PAS Youth chief-cum-Pasir Mas MP Nik Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz even glorified Lotfi as a ‘martyr’ as did other PAS members, and further defended his militant engagement as ‘if someone is not responsible for his own end, then he will not be responsible for someone else’s world’,” she said.

Heng ( photo ) also pointed out that both Lotfi and Nik Adli Nik Abdul Aziz - son of the late PAS spiritual adviser Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat - were both previously detained under the now abolished Internal Security Act for suspected involvement with militant activities.

While targeting her attacks on PAS, Heng however also took a swipe at Mohamad who she said, despite being known as a moderate, had in 2011 openly discussed his reverence for Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

“He supported the late leader’s use of religion to mobilise change, which indicates that Mat Sabu may well easily emulate Khomeini and deploy religion as a platform for social change towards dogmatic rule,” she said.

Shooting back at the critics, PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan said the Islamist party is no stranger to attempts at linking the party to extremist movements or ideologies.

“It is funny. It has only been a few months since they (Amanah leaders) left PAS and now suddenly PAS becomes a militant (group)? Becomes IS? And they dig up past stories supposedly as proof that PAS is (infiltrated by) extremist?” he said, adding that the same leaders had never raised the matter while they were still with the party.

'Preposterous allegations'

He also described such “obsolete” allegations as being extremely malicious and preposterous, recycled since the early days of the party’s establishment.

PAS research director Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki also claimed that Amanah seems to be confused on which “bullet” it is using to attack the party.

“If PAS is accused of being infiltrated by IS, then why is PAS also accused of attempting to cooperate with the (BN) government.

“These are two vastly different approaches,” he said.

Based on the paradox between the two accusations, Zuhdi said Amanah leaders should first sort out their own confusion before attacking PAS.

At its last party elections, PAS conservatives under president Abdul Hadi Awang had wiped out their rivals who then left to form Amanah.

The run-up to the election was marred with allegations of internal sabotage involving the two rivalling factions.