Communication and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak has condemned politicians who use religion for scare-mongering or to divide the people.

"It is most unfortunate that some politicians are using religion as a political bogeyman, in particular for scare-mongering purposes, which is badly dividing the people.

"This is not only very naughty but dangerous as well," he said in a blog posting today.

Salleh, who is from Sabah, said East Malaysia has never experienced any problems with religion, but now there are those who are trying to raise religious sentiments as part of their political strategy.

Nation-building, he pointed out, cannot be achieved by dividing the people.

"Why the need to divide Muslims into moderate Muslims and extremist Muslims and further Muslims and non-Muslims?

"Only politicians bankrupt of ideas would do this," he added.

The former Sabah chief minister said it is ironic that the ones who complain about the divide are the ones causing it.

"This is like the fox offering to save the chickens from getting eaten by other foxes," he quipped.

He also said that merely complaining about how bad the divide is now would not solve the issue but serve to further divide Malaysians.

As such, he urged those complaining to offer solutions instead.

"We keep hearing about the problem without hearing what the solutions are. So let us hear what solutions those people who complain about a divided Malaysia can offer," he said.