Zaid Ibrahim: Jamil Khir a ‘threat to democracy’ with scourge against ‘liberal’ Muslims

Jamil Khir Baharom

PETALING JAYA - Malaysia’s Islamic affairs minister should be arrested for endangering the country’s democratic principles by labelling liberal Muslims as deviants, a former de facto law minister said today.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom’s parliamentary response on liberal Muslims will encourage persecution against citizens simply for holding different views and was a direct violation of the country’s supreme law which recognises plurality in beliefs.

“People like that should be arrested… what he said is a threat to democracy,” Zaid told a press conference at his house here.

“As a Cabinet minister, he should know that this is a democratic country which means we have to respect the basic rights of the people. Just because he is not a liberal he can’t arrest me because I am a liberal.

“That is a violation of people’s basic rights,” he added.

In his written parliamentary reply to PAS-Pasir Mas MP Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Aziz, Jamil Khir said liberal Muslims are a danger because they believe in “pluralism”, adding that the ideology which held the human intellect to be a revelation deviated from the teachings of the Sunni Islam school.