PAS leader gets hammered by colleagues, conservative groups over Oktoberfest stand
(The Malaysian Insider) – Muslim conservatives have ganged up on a Selangor PAS lawmaker for defending the “Oktoberfest” beer festival, arguing that the event insulted Muslim sensitivities and was a “public vice”.
Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad was criticised for his stance that the event should not be shut down as it was aimed at non-Muslims and was being held in non-Muslim-majority areas of the Klang Valley.
Khalid’s colleague in PAS, Nasrudin Hassan, said that Muslim authorities had a duty to shut the event down even though non-Muslims had a right to consume alcohol.
Other conservatives argued that although Malaysia was a pluralistic society where non-Muslims had a right to hold their own festivals, they said this right must be tempered with the fact that Malaysia was an “Islamic country”.
