PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has been advised to identify those who allegedly distributed Bibles at a Penang high school and Malay residential area in Kedah, before holding a dialogue session with churches.

Kedah executive council member in charge of religion, Ismail Salleh, says this is needed in order to prevent inter-religious tensions from developing.

“If we don’t know who is distributing it (the Bibles), how are we going to take action? It’s like an illness – if we don’t know what we are suffering from, we don’t know what medicine should be taken,” he told Malaysiakini.

Last night, Hadi reportedly said he was open to having a dialogue with church representatives over the recent incidents concerning the distribution of Bibles in Penang and Kedah.

The Marang MP had said that freedom of religion in Malaysia did not mean that Muslim sensibilities should be offended.

On Nov 9 at 3am, four individuals were seen distributing Bibles in English and Tamil at a Malay residential area in Kampung Sungai Emas, Kota Kuala Muda, Kedah.

The incident is currently under police investigation.

On the same day, it was reported that police had recorded the statements of six individuals who were believed to have distributed Bibles to students in front of a high school in Bukit Mertajam, Penang.

Ismail added that when he was still in PAS, he had a good relationship with the Christian priests in the state.

The Amanah state representative for Pengkalan Kundor says he had conducted a dialogue with the group.

“(If Hadi) wants to have a dialogue, that’s great. Those of us who used to be in PAS have already conducted a dialogue. Based on this previous dialogue, they are not extreme and have never been so,” he said.

According to him, the dialogue had emphasised the importance of goodwill between religions, avoiding extremism and respecting each other.

“But if there are other extremist groups, I don’t know of them. To me, if you want to hold a dialogue, don’t wait (until a case occurs) but have it continuously, in order to build national harmony and create understanding between each other,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ismail reminded the public not to fret over the issue as it was currently under police investigation and Kedah had means to punish the perpetrators.

He said that if the Bible was deliberately distributed by certain parties in order to provoke, he hoped society would not take the bait.

“My advice is, we need to identify the cause (of the Bible distribution) and if it was genuinely distributed to spread the teachings of Christianity, the authorities and police will investigate.

“We, the rakyat, shouldn’t be distressed as there are laws that will be upheld, and if there was genuinely provocation involved, we hope citizens will understand and not be incited.

“Of course, religious provocation exists, (but) don’t be influenced by such provocation. We want the rakyat to get the truth,” he said.