Anwar tosses Selangor bible hot potato to PM

(MM) – Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today he will leave it to the prime minister to initiate action on the seizure of Malay and Iban language bibles in Selangor by state religious authorities.

When asked by a reporter what he would do to help resolve the “Allah” issue should he win the Kajang state seat, Anwar repeated his push for more inter-coalition dialogues and a “national consensus”.

“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and the home minister have given a positive response to my proposal.

“I would leave it at that,” the Opposition Leader told reporters at the PKR headquarters here, moments after announcing his intention to stand for the Kajang state seat.

Najib said yesterday that he will bring Anwar’s idea of a “national consensus” to the Cabinet. The prime minister said he had first mooted the idea after the general election last May but that allegations of phantom voters and opposition-led rallies denouncing the election results had overshadowed events.

On Sunday, Anwar called for leaders from both sides of the political divide to set aside enmities and work together to ease growing communal tension and rebuild national unity.

He also urged all quarters to stop questioning the position of Islam as the religion of the Federation and reject the notion that the religion is under threat.

Communal ties have been strained since the general election, with religious tensions flaring up again following a January 2 raid by the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) on a bible distributor in Petaling Jaya, where over 300 copies of Malay- and Iban-language bibles were confiscated for containing the word “Allah”.

Last week, protesters at an Umno-organised rally were reported to have held up banners threatening a recurrence of the deadly May 13, 1969 racial riots over an alleged slight by an opposition lawmaker against Najib.