Sultan’s ruling given cautionary welcome
Harapan Komuniti’s lawyer says that the Sultan’s statement suggests that proselytising did take place during the NGO’s Thanksgiving dinner.
(Free Malaysia Today) – The Sultan of Selangor’s ruling that no group should be prosecuted over the controversial raid on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) on Aug 3 has been cautiously welcomed by a lawyer of one of the accused parties.
The Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (JAIS) raided a Thanksgiving dinner organised by NGO Harapan Komuniti following a tip-off that proselytising activities were taking place during the event.
Harapan Komuniti denied this and insisted that the event was a fundraiser for HIV/AIDS supporters.
In a statement yesterday, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah ruled that the JAIS report on the raid indicated that its actions were correct and had not breached any state laws.
The sultan also ordered JAIS to provide counselling to the Muslims present at the dinner to restore their belief and faith in the religion.
While DUMC has “warmly welcomed” the sultan’s ruling, Annou Xavier of Messrs Azri, Lee Swee Seng & Co who represents Harapan Komuniti has refrained from expressing the same sentiments.
“I can’t say if I’m happy or not because the sultan’s statement was neither here nor there,” he told FMT.
“If you read it carefully the sultan appears to have alluded to the fact that proselytising had indeed taken place during the dinner.
“Also the manner in which JAIS had conducted the raid was thoroughly unprofessional in its casting of aspersions and leaking details of the initial findings of its investigations.”
Death threat on Harapan Komuniti
A six-minute video clip showing scenes of the raid surfaced on pro-Umno blogs two weeks after the raid followed by photographs and personal details of the Muslim dinner guests.
Questions were raised as to how supposedly confidential JAIS evidence had fallen into these bloggers’ hands.
Xavier also said that he hadn’t yet seen JAIS’ final report and wasn’t privy to any of the details.
“Since we are the accused party, the least JAIS could do is give us a copy of the final report,” he said.
“I’ll have to ask the DUMC lawyers whether they have already requested one from JAIS.”
