Speak up on Nurul Izzah’s statement, PAS leaders urged
(The Star) – The PAS top leadership has been urged to take PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar to task if she had implied that religious freedom should be accorded to the Malays, too.
PAS Syura Council member Nasharudin Mat Isa said party members and supporters were anxious over what the top leadership had to say of the issue.
“They are waiting for a stern statement,” he said, responding to the outcry over the Lembah Pantai MP’s controversial comment at a recent forum on the Islamic state.
He said Nurul Izzah should retract her statement if she had not meant to say that religious freedom should also be accorded to the Malays.
“She must justify her argument, now that she denies saying something to the effect,” he said.
PAS Ulama chief Datuk Harun Taib agrees. He said Nurul Izzah should reflect on what she had said and retract her statement if she felt what she expressed earlier was wrong.
“If she feels she is not in the wrong, she has every right to refuse to retract her statement,” he said.
Former Terengganu PKR Youth chief Fakrul Azman called on PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to “stop playing politics” in defending Nurul Izzah.
“Otherwise, people will assume PAS is willing to sacrifice its principles for the sake of political expediency,” he said.
In IPOH, Perak PAS has reiterated the leadership’s stand to wait first for a clarification from the MP before commenting on the issue.
“We want to hear it from her first,” said state PAS commissioner Abu Bakar Hussain.
Meanwhile, state DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham has also drawn flak over his tweets over the issue.
A posting from one aktivis pendang jr warned: “YB jangan selalu bercakap tentang agama orang lain, hormati setiap agama (YB don’t always talk about other people’s religion, respect all religion).”
He said this in response to a Nov 6 tweet from Ngeh, which said, among others: “Nurul as MP is defending the Fed Const. Art 11(1). Every person has the right to profess & practise his religion.”
