With God playing a crucial role in the Permatang Pauh by-election, the line between the sacred and the profane has become blur.

badrul amin The latest 'divine' twist was reported by Malay daily Utusan Malaysia which quoted PKR supreme council member Dr Badrul Amin Baharum as calling for the 'destruction' of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan while leading a prayer session last night.

The religious scholar also allegedly imprecated Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail and Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan - the man who accused Anwar Ibrahim of sodomising him.

"Ya Allah... destroy Mohd Saiful... Musa Hassan... Gani Patail... Najib," the Umno-linked daily quoted Badrul as saying when leading a prayer congregation at Masjid Bandar Baru Perdana.

According to the report titled ' Doa musnah sesama Islam ' (Praying for the destruction of fellow Muslims), the prayer reverberated from the mosque’s loudspeakers for all within earshot to hear.

Denouncing this, Utusan said: "It is against the teachings of Islam to pray for malediction for others. The Prophet (Muhammad) prohibited his people from praying for such things."

The daily added that many members of the Islamic opposition party PAS were also present during the prayers.

'My words were altered'

However, Badrul denied the report, claiming that his words were altered as he had only asked for divine judgement.

"I did not say ' musnah ' (destroy). And I did not pray for God to ' musnahkan ' them. I only called for God to ' hukum ' (judge) those who are involved in slander," he told Malaysiakini today.

"There is a difference between musnah and hukum . Only God can judge or deliver his verdict, and I called on God to 'judge' or 'deliver your verdict'."

Explaining further, Badrul said a verdict or judgement is a neutral word and can take many forms.

"If a person is ' dihukum ' by God, it may come in the form of a physical calamity. But hukuman can also denote a positive outcome such as a person ' berinsaf ' (repenting)," he said, adding that many people who were there heard what he had actually uttered in the mosque.

Badrul also defended his act of naming the four persons as they were the intended targets of his supplication since he is convinced they are slandering Anwar.

He also took a swipe at Utusan , saying the daily had become "a tool of the political forces."