Pasir Puteh MP Nik Muhammad Zawawi Nik Salleh said yesterday that there is no need for him to apologise for saying that Bible has been corrupted or manipulated.
Nik Zawawi also said that Christians should not be offended, claiming his statement was “a fact”.
“They have no right to be offended. What I said was not an accusation, but a fact,” he was quoted saying.
“There is no need to apologise. Why should I? I don’t want to comment, what I said is right. Why should I apologise?”
Insisting he is not wrong, he said he based what he said on the knowledge that he learned and the facts he received.
“It is also mentioned in the Quran. You can’t say that the Quran is wrong. That is why I am confident,” said Zawawi, who heads the Islamist party’s Dewan Ulama, a wing of senior Muslim jurists.
Nik Zawawi had instead said that he is willing to hold a “dialogue” over the matter.
Earlier, the Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS) demanded for Nik Zawawi to retract his remarks in Parliament and urged him to tender a public apology to all Christians.
The ACS said the MP’s comments were offensive and unacceptable, adding that his statement was a direct insult against the Bible.
“The statement that ‘kitab Injil ini dipesongkan ataupun diubah’ alleging that ‘the Gospel is distorted or changed’ crosses into the boundary of religious sensitivity.
“This is considered serious and unacceptable since these statements were openly said and recorded in the official transcript of the 14th Dewan Rakyat sitting on Aug 26,” ACS chairman Archbishop Simon Poh said in a statement yesterday.
Poh described Zawawi’s remarks as extreme and disrespectful to Christians and went against the Federal Constitution and Malaysia Agreement 1963.
The PAS MP made the remark when debating the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill 2020 to propose heavier fines for drink driving offenders on August 26.
Despite being corrected by DAP’s Beruas MP Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham, the PAS lawmaker insisted that he was correct and that he made the remarks based on his study on religion comparison.
Nik Zawawi had accused Ngeh for referring to a Bible that was already distorted when referring to alcohol consumption in Christianity.
Earlier this week, church leaders explained that Christianity does not forbid liquor but only condemns intoxication and debauchery.