KUALA LUMPUR (AFP)-The Malaysian government has issued guidelines to mosques across the country to ensure they do not spread "lies," a minister said yesterday.
"The government is also monitoring the Friday sermons at mosques identified as having problems," said Abdul Hamid Othman, a minister in the Prime Minister's department, who was quoted as saying authorities had identified eight mosques in the capital that they charged had been “misused to spread slanders and lies.”
The report did not identify the suspected parties, but government leaders have frequently accused the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) of politicizing mosques.
Meanwhile PAS leader Fadzil Noor criticized a planned government bill to separate religion from politics, calling it a "black dot" for the Islamic community.
Rais Yatim, another minister in the Prime Minister's department, said last week that PAS had "mixed religion with politics to the extent of confusing the people." With the passing of such a law, Rais said, Muslims and Malays would be reunited after being long separated by different political ideologies.
Fadzil urged the government to abandon plans for such a law, saying it was "a secular approach that has destroyed the civilization in many Islamic countries."
PAS's cooperation with other political parties, without sacrificing its Islamic principles, had reduced racial sensitiveness and united the country's Muslim and non-Muslim communities, he said in a statement.
PAS allied itself with three other political parties in last November's general election. It made major gains among ethnic Malay voters at the expense of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad’s United Malays National Organization.
PAS more than tripled its parliamentary seats to 27 and took control of the northeastern state of Terengganu. The government last week severely restricted sales of the PAS newspaper Harakah. Ministers accused the party of distorting the teachings of Islam to seek votes, a charge denied by PAS.
