KUALA LUMPUR – PAS lawmaker Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh was instructed to apologise over his statement that the Bible has been corrupted or manipulated by Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun.
On August 26, the Pasir Puteh MP had made the remark when debating the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill 2020 to propose heavier fines for drunk drivers.
“It must be stressed that his honourable Pasir Puteh had clearly stated in the Hansard that he had no intention of insulting any religions.
“However, in the heat of the debate, his honourable Pasir Puteh had spontaneously stated the words “manipulated” and “corrupted” which had hurt our brothers and sisters of the Christian faith.
“To preserve Malaysia’s multicultural community’s harmony, I request and ask that his honourable Pasir Puteh apologise and retract those two words,” said Azhar.
Yesterday, Azhar was reminded by DAP’s Kuching lawmaker Kelvin Yii over a letter that was sent to the Speaker’s office on September 1, requesting a decision over the statement.
As he apologised, Nik Zawawi said that there are three streams of Christians ranging from the prohibitionists that disallow alcoholic beverages, the abstentionists who disapproves of alcoholic beverages but allows its consumption and the moderates who allow the partaking of alcoholic beverages.
He added that it was not his intention to hurt the feelings of Christians when he was debating with Ngeh Koo Ham (DAP – Beruas) on that day.
“I apologise if there were those who were hurt because it was not my intention, my intention was to defend the original Bible that was revealed to Prophet Isa,” said Nik Zawawi. – The Vibes, November 3, 2020